THE OLIVE HARVEST NO. 10 -- GREEN ON GREEN

These oils are from different pressings. The oil in the little jug is last year's oil. It is still good and will be for some time.

Advice: Always buy "extra virgin" olive oil. Also look for such words as "cold pressed" and "single estate" on the labels. Never buy the cheapest oil on the shelf. Never by "classico" or "extra light" olive oils. Move along to sunflower or other vegetable oils instead. Beware of "boutique" oils flavoured with garlic or other herbs and spices. This is a gimmick, increases the price and probably disguises mediocre or plain lousy oil. You can flavour your own oil.

Fraud and stuff you never wanted to know:

Heaps of residue from the pressing mats will pile up outside of frantoios where it collects dust, car exhaust fumes and the occasional anointment by passing dogs. Eventually a big lorry will come along and take it away to Genoa where it will undergo a second pressing, even a third. It is done with heat and massive pressure. Some of this will end up on supermarket shelves as plain olive oil, some even as "virgin" olive oil. That's why you want the words "extra virgin" on your bottle of oil. Most of this oil is sold to food manufacturers who use in tins of tuna, olives and other food products.

At any time around now there can be tankers loaded with Turkish hazelnut oil or Argentinian sunflower seed oil wandering around the Mediterranean and even the North Sea. During these voyages the oil, as if by magic, turns into olive oil and is imported into Italy as such. At a processing plant it is flavoured and coloured, and perhaps a little real olive oil is added. This adulterated oil is distributed to some of the biggest names in the olive oil business and ends up on supermarket shelves everywhere.

Two branches of the Italian police are confronting this scandal. The Carabinieri and the Guardia Finanzia have had some success in stopping the production of fraudulent oil but the government favours the big producers over the small ones which means progress is slow.

It is very sad that Bertolli, the company that started up in Lucca in 1865 is now owned by Unilever. Allegedly it no longer contains a measurable quantity of Italian oil. They even sold the orchards so what they bought, in fact, was the brand name. You could look for Rocchi olive oil. It is still locally produced.

And so, the harvest goes on and I'd like to move along, too. Thanks to everybody who followed the series and commented upon it. Any suggestions for pics from Tuscany would be gratefully received.