eGlobal Education

 

Don in front of 2000 year old olive tree

A big surprise was our visit to Masseria Brancati, an olive farm that dates to pre-Roman times.  The spectacular trees are huge, hollowed out by bacteria (as are the oak trees in California), and still producing large quantities of excellent olives. 

pre-Roman olive tree--maybe 3000 years old

Some of the trees were planted by Greek farmers before the Roman era.  These could be as old as 3000 years.  They were planted randomly, while the Romans planted their trees in straight lines, so you can see which trees were planted by whom.  The Roman trees are 2000 years old.  They are gravely threatened by a new bacteria that has decimated olive orchards just south of Masseria Brancati.  It would be terrible to lose these ancient giants.

Beneath the modern olive press is the Roman mill.  It must have been pretty grim for man and beast.  Donkeys or cattle walked around and around in a small circle, pulling the huge grindstone until the olives had given up all their oil.  They reportedly knew to stop pulling when the pulling became easier because all the olives had been reduced to pulp.  The pulp was turned into oil for lamps. 

Roman olive grinding stone

The animals lived underground in a stable carved out of the limestone.  I hope they were able to go aboveground when the pressing season was over.  Otherwise, their lives would have been cruel and short.

ancient olive orchard

Even worse was the fate of the men who worked in the mill.  They spent all their time underground working the animals, dumping olives into the press, cleaning the channels that transferred the oil from the grinding area to stone vats, and pouring the finished oil into crockery for sale.  They had a limestone shelf about 10’ X 8’ where they slept, presumably with nothing like a blanket or pillow to provide any comfort.  These were probably slaves who lived short and brutish lives, overworked, underfed and cruelly treated.

Roman olive oil bins

The mill itself was ingenious, with vats and channels carved into the limestone and clay pipes for feeding olives into the underground mill.  Grindstones were huge and very heavy.  Later, giant screws of wood were used to press down smaller grindstones, presumably making it faster and easier to produce the oil.

Masseria Brancati makes 4 kinds of olive oil, ranging from extra virgin (the first crushing of the olives, immediately after they are harvested) to lemon-flavored.  According to our guide, there is no oil that is better than another.  It is all a matter of individual taste.

Our guide was the marketing director for the Masseria and was excellent.  She told us she had married young, had two sons, then divorced and moved to London with her little boys.  She worked as a global marketing director for American Express for 10 years until Brexit made her and her sons unwelcome in  Britain.  So, she came home, but is very anxious to emigrate to another European country or, better, the US or Canada, where she can work again in a global capacity.  She has found business in southern Italy slow to change and unenlightened in its practices.