The White Villages

 Today we visit the white villages in Sierra de Grazalema Natural Park, a global UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. The park is know for its deep gorges and green valleys. Unfortunately, it was a rather cloudy day and grand vistas were perhaps a little obscured. 

But first, it is time to explore Spanish olives. We stopped at Oleum Viride, a gourmet olive oil establishment and had a tutorial on how to make olive oil.

Harvesting: They use tree shakers to dislodge ripened olives from the trees. The olives are caught in a net so they never touch the ground.

Cleaning and Milling: The olives are rushed to the local mill where they are washed and stripped of stems and leaves. The whole fruit (including pits) is crushed into a thick wet paste using steel hammers or rollers.

Churning:The paste is churned to allow tiny droplets of oil to merge into larger ones. Temperatures are strctly kept below 80.6F to get the “cold-pressed” label.

Centrifugation: The paste is then spun at high speeds in a centrifuge. The spin separates the solid waste of skins, flesh and pits and the remaining vegetation water from the pure oil.

Storage and Bottling: The fresh oil is decanted and stored in massive temperature-controlled stainless steel tanks to prevent oxidation before being filtered and bottled

It was then on to the tasting of the oil and learning how to buy and store your olive oil. Needless to say, when I got home I threw out all of my existing expired bottles. The tasting was interesting, not only did we taste different olive types, but some of the oils were infused with flavors, such as lavender or red peppers.

After that oily start to the day, we ended up in the white villages of Grazalema and Zahara. It was very pretty but it was strange that there was hardly anybody on the streets except for a few senior citizens. I do have to say that Greece ain't got nothing on these Andalusian white villages! Well, maybe they do, a little. There is that blue, blue sea in Greece.

The Keep of the castle at Castillo de Zahara de la Sierra
Built  13th-15th century

Capilla de San Juan de Letran in Zahara
I liked it because you spend so much time in the big cathedrals, it is nice to see a nice little chapel.

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