Every year, as soon as Sukkos is over, I immediately think of olive picking. Literally the next available day! Maybe you can relate to that? (or maybe not…)
So yesterday we went picking in the stunning, tranquil Jerusalem foothills and enjoyed whacking down a sizable horde of olives.
We then took them to be pressed into oil right away. After 5 olive-picking seasons this is the first time I’ve managed to create such fresh oil!
That was thanks to our decision to press our olives at Melo HaTene, a small-scale press located in the Gezer region (about 30 mins drive from Beit Shemesh). This was a departure from previous years, when we pressed at Latrun.
The initial reason for this change was that Latrun isn’t open on Sundays, and we wanted to get our olives pressed on the day we picked, to avoid missing another day of work.
Also, we’ve “done” Latrun a few times and I was ready for a new adventure. (not least so that I can share my adventure with you.)
Melo HaTene is an ideal option for hobby olive oil-ers who don’t pick large quantities. The price per kg is more expensive than Latrun but they don’t have a minimum and they give you the jerry cans for free. So if you have under about 60kg to press, it can work out cheaper.
It should be noted that Melo HaTene’s equipment is not industrial-scale. It’s barely a 5th of the size of Latrun’s mammoth olive press.
Despite the difference in production scale, according to my not-so-sophisticated tastebuds, both presses give you fresh olive oil that tastes amazing.
Both machines, however, are defeaningly loud, so be prepared to endure a jet-engine-level roar when you visit.
But without a doubt Melo HaTene is a far friendlier experience for the hobbyist. I would even recommend it if you have more than 60kg to press.
I don’t know if Melo HaTene has a minimum but someone told me they do. They charge 3.50 shekel/kg, so it makes sense that it’s not worth for for them to press your olives if you only have a small amount. Considering it takes 6-7 kg of olives to make 1 liter of oil, it’s not worth it for you either!
It’s always recommended to call ahead to make sure they can help you.
Our Impressions
The owner has taken great pride in sprucing up this old warehouse with beautiful stained glass windows, a display of old olive presses and other old machinery, and all kinds of curious products for sale. (There was no visible hecksher but I enjoyed looking around.)
There is an organic orchard surrounding it and also chickens and goats to admire. My favorite part was the gorgeous and enormous door of the warehouse.
It’s lovely to be in a place where the owners show such pride in their premises and make it special for their visitors. Since pressing olives involves 1-2 hours of waiting around, it’s great that there is so much to see. It sure beats the gloomy and grimy lot in the shadow of the Latrun Monastry, where we mostly passed the time by averting our eyes from a statue of Yoshkie Pancake’s Mommy.
In contrast, Melo HaTene was much cleaner and more friendly, though we could not actually converse with any of the welcoming inhabitants given the ear-splitting decibel intensity of the machinery.
Of course, Latrun was a real experience too. We enjoyed meeting all those weather-hardened farmers from moshavim around the area, forklifting in several tonnes of olives that they had labored so ardously to pick. They had wisdom the were willing to share with us olive oil rookies.
Still, though I would never call olive picking easy, but our Melo HaTene experience was faster, more pleasant and… yes… easier.
It’s a great place to visit any time, but especially right now if you have some olives to press!
I’m thrilled to report that this year’s oil tastes magnificent BH!
May we be blessed to continue to enjoy the “Yitzhar” – the unique olive oil of Eretz Yisrael!
PS. For anyone who is seriously interested picking olives to make oil, I highly recommend you read all my articles on the subject.
Picking and Pressing Olive Oil in Israel
Who do the trees belong to? Can anyone just go to a tree in the foothills and pick? Also what is the cost of the pressing? Thank you.
Israel is the land of a endless olive trees and many are “hefker”. Even those with owners are usually not picked and the owners will readily let you pick them.
Info about fees at the olive press and how to find trees to pick are addressed in my previous articles on the olive picking (listed at the end of the article)
If you’d like to do this, I highly recommend you read them all
Behatzlacha!
This is so inspiring and I hope to join you one year!