The Oil
The farm Vie del Sale operates in the village of Civezza (IM), Italy.
We are in the heart of the hills of the Ligurian Riviera that from the sea rise sharply up to 800 msl of the Ligurian Alps. The olive groves from which the olives used to produce our Extra Virgin Olive Oil come from, are of our property and located in the town of Civezza - or from olives groves managed by people of faith who are using our same disciplinary, always located in west Ligurian , from Valle Impero (eg: Villa Guardia) to Taggia. All plots at an altitude of between 100 and 300 meters above sea level.
The cultivar of the fruit is strictly quality "taggiasca" and is collected again by manual means (typing), depending on the year, from mid-October to February forwarded.
Olive grove
The agronomic management of olive groves tries to reproduce the natural cycles.
Since few years we do not proceed to produce organo-mineral fertilizers but we rely on composting on site.
All residues of pruning and mowing are shredded mechanically with a bio-shredder directly on the ground. At the end of this procedure, the grove thus prepared is sprayed with an aqueous mixture containing certain types of bacteria (previously prepared and multiplied in an anaerobic environment) that feeding mainly of lignin contained in the residuals of twigs, provide, in a relatively short time, to decompose all the material in the organic matter available to the plants.
We limit ourselves, therefore, simply to speed up a little the principle that mother nature provides for thousands of years for the self-fertilization of fallow land (whether forests, meadows and rainforests).
In some years, particularly rainy and humid some foliar treatment are also made with aqueous mixtures containing copper oxychloride mainly used as antifungal activity. In some cases, to the cupric product you add the same aqueous mixture as described above (the one with the bacteria) to obtain also a foliar fertilization.
PRODUCTS
Production
The olive groves are irrigated with a drip system to compensate the develop-transpiration of soil, especially in hot and dry years. During the summer, some pesticide treatments are needed to combat the olive fly (Bactrocera oleae) that uses the fruit to lay their eggs causing rotting and mold in the olive.
Our farm has dropped from about 4 years, the use of dimethoate (an insecticide used to combat the rather obsolete Moscow Olive) and use a systemic insecticide that has times of shortage similar but uses a molecule suggested by the european protocols of the latest generation and which therefore guarantees a lower toxicity both for the fruit than for the surrounding environment.
The fruits are collected by manual and mechanical. We use the beaters tires combing the olive branches, gently peel off the fruits that fall to the ground on the networks for the collection prepared earlier.
The olives harvested in the day, in the space of 8/10 hours, are taken to the mill for the "defoliation", "washing", the "milling", the "kneading" the "pressing" and "separation". All phases, these, which, though made with different instruments and modern, can be considered similar to those used in ancient Rome as told by Virgilio.
The end result is an extra virgin olive oil of superior quality, produced exclusively by mechanical means and by using a processing temperature that never exceeds 24 ° C.
Which ensures excellent chemical and excellent organoleptic qualities.