the country
Behind the mountains of Taygetos, at the foothills of which lies in the south of the middle foothills of the mythical Greek peninsula Peloponnese, lies the Mani - a wild, original stretch of land, characterized by impassable stony slopes, broken up by terraces and fertile plains that spill out towards the sea.
Here the silvery shimmering olive trees grow surrounded by herbs and bushes that characterize the landscape.
Usually cut back small, otherwise harvesting the olives on the slopes and between the calcareous rocks would be almost impossible. At first glance, the partly barren subsoil seems unsuitable for olive cultivation, but it is precisely the barren, calcareous soil that the olive tree loves.
It is not for nothing that Mani is considered one of the best production areas for olive oil worldwide and has been so since ancient times.
Here you can sometimes still find the quiet, hardly touched Greece with its friendly and yet closed-acting people,
who live in complete harmony with the rhythm of their nature and landscape, as well as the kafenion as the central place of village life and the village tavern, which does not ingratiate itself with modern tourism habits.
The outer Mani, the region in which we are at home, begins south of Kalamata and ends in the actual capital of the Mani "Areopoli". Inner Mani stretches from here to Cape Tainaron, the southernmost point of mainland Greece.
Our Morea oil mill is located almost exactly halfway to the cape, in the village of Thalames, 50 km south of Kalamata and 15 km from Areopoli, directly on the only connecting road.
about us
Our mill is one of the last remaining traditional stone mills in the Peloponnese or Greece.
Until 30 years ago the world standard of olive oil production and in its way a continuation of thousands of years
old tradition, these mills have largely disappeared nowadays.
They were replaced by significantly more economical machines.
The olives are no longer ground with stones, but crushed with knives or hammer mills.
There is no longer a pressing process in the true sense. A so-called decanter is used here,
a kind of horizontally arranged centrifuge that permanently separates the oil-fruit water mixture from the solid components. As a result, a larger quantity of olive oil can be produced much faster with fewer employees.
In relation to the size of our mill, this means that we only use about 10 to 15 percent for the same effort
of the yield of a modern mill and we not only have less yield,
but also have double the production costs. Only the sole self-marketing of our olive oil enables the survival of this old craft of traditional pressing.
the harvest
Depending on the course of the year and the degree of ripeness of the olives, the harvest begins between the beginning and middle of November and sometimes ends in February of the following year. Harvesting is still mainly done by hand with sticks, combs or small electric harvesters, since the small plots and stony slopes make it impossible to use large harvesting machines.
It is harvested every day from sunrise to sunset, weather permitting. Accordingly, the mills are running at full speed almost day and night. In order to get the best quality, the olives must be taken to the mill as freshly as possible after harvesting so that they can be processed there promptly. In the best case, this happens on the same day. The fresher the olives are processed, the lower the acidity of the oil, i.e. the proportion of free fatty acids.
Certainly, a low acidity is a quality criterion, but ultimately the taste is decisive for us. The olives cannot have the same low acidity every year. In addition to the freshness of the processing, this also depends on the environmental factors that cannot be influenced, such as sun, amount of precipitation, etc. The degree of maturity also makes a crucial difference. Here you can see that the greener the olives are, the lower the acidity. Anyone who only looks at acidity here simply misjudges the product and forgoes a balanced taste in favor of this one parameter, which can only arise from a well-balanced ratio of green and ripe, darker fruits.
The legal limit for extra virgin quality is 0.8%, although we work with an internal maximum value of 0.4%, but mostly in the range of 0.2% to 0.3%.
mills shop
Our little mill shop we operate right next to our mill in a small mountain village in Thalames.
If you are looking for olive oil, olives & capers, olive wood, honey, cosmetics, etc., you have come to the right place.
You can always visit us during the season (May - October).
Address: MOREA - Mill, 24023 Thalames, Peloponnese/Greece
Our opening times are:
Tuesday to Saturday: 11 a.m. to 5 p.m
Sunday: 10 a.m. to 2 p.m
(Our mill shop is only open during the season!!! May - October)
We are looking forward to your visit!
