[gpjt]

My parents retired to Italy a number of years ago, to a place with a hundred or so olive trees in the garden, and each November some of us head over to pick the olives (much to the amusement of the locals, who think we're crazy to do agricultural work in our spare time) and take them to a nearby pressing plant (where you can wander around and see the process to make sure your harvest isn't being mixed up with other, lesser olives). The end result is much spicier and harsher than anything I've ever bought. Personally I think it's delicious, but I'm hardly an unbiased judge...

[omegant]

Once a year I get some 5 liters of cold pressed virgin organic olive oil. I know it´s origin for sure because it comes from a private guy doing his own stuff on a small cold press (he is not for quantity just for the best quality for his family, it´s a hobby for him). I agree with you that you won´t find anithing similar in a store: It´s more acid, spicier, deep green, clowdy (it´s unfiltered) and very very tasty (it has some taste to the olives still in it). It defenitely gives flavor to your salads or bread. You can not use it for frying as it will give a distinct flavor, not that it´ll ruin the food but it´ll taste to green olive oil.

Just to give you a sense of the difference, we are used to cook almost exclusively with olive oil. We buy "virgin" olive oil from reputable brands for the saladas and special dishes. The home made one is soo much better compared to those.

I love it!

[Florin_Andrei]

It baffles me how people are not puzzled how the "extra virgin" olive oil they use doesn't taste anything like olives. I mean, c'mon people, have you never tasted olives? How do you expect the "unadulterated" extract to have none of that flavor at all?

[tptacek]

It baffles me that people expect to buy "extra virgin olive oil" in canola- oil- sized- jugs and expect it to have huge flavor; I get that it's frustrating that the "extra virgin" label has been diluted to meaninglessness, but really, just treat cheap extra virgin oil as if it was "pure olive oil" (saute with it, for instance) and seek out specific oils you really like.

Serious good olive oils all taste very different, so the whole idea of them being interchangeably good is a bit weird.

[91bananas]

sounds freaking amazing.

[simonebrunozzi]

That's actually cool. I am from Italy (Umbria), and I can appreciate why you do it. In which area are you doing it? Just curious.

[gpjt]

In Sabina, just north-east of Rome. I guess the climate's not too different to Umbria's...?