| Particularly
when harvested from the ground, olives can become dirty
and need to be rinsed before crushing. |
After
the olives have been rinsed, they are ready to be crushed,
and are transported to the mill. |
It
is important that there is no delay in extracting the oil
from the olives, as the passage of time will allow the fruit
to become oxidized, and thereby destroy the quality of the
oil. |
Traditionally,
heavy granite wheels were used to crush the olives--along
with the pits--into a coarse paste called "must"
or, in Italian, "musto." |
