Olive Oil in the Holyland

Olive Oil Experience -- Jerusalem

Olive Picking

We spent a few hours picking olives on the Center grounds. The picking was a challenge because the best olives were up high. We had some ladders and a few tall people, but not enough. We gathered a fair amount of olives for our olive oil making project, and purchased some additional olives.

If you can't reach the olives, it helps to get on the shoulders of another.

Making Olive Oil

Three components are used to make olive oil.

The Crushing Mill:

Our Crushing Mill


A Levers & Weights Press:

Our Levers and Weights Press

A Screw Press:

Our Screw Press
We began by placing olives into the Crushing Mill. Students or animals push a shaft that is attached to a crushing stone around. The stone crushes the olives into a mash. After the olives are mashed they are put into baskets and taken to the presses. Some mash was spilled.

The first oil released from the Screw press

The first oil released from the Levers and Weights Press
And thus we have participated in an age-old process of extracting oil from olives. It is still done this way in may parts of the world.