The history of olive oil is over 6000 years old, so it is certainly not new what Casa Junius intends to do at the end of this year. But I don't mind. This blog is about what we are going to do to get a perfect Extra vierge olive oil you can buy at our Casa Junius online shop for a reasonable price straight from the press.
A little foreword
Casa Junius is housed in an old fully renovated Spanish cortijo of about 150 years old. This cortijo used to have a lot of land with many olive trees. Nowadays a fraction of that land is left, but 10 production trees still belong to the cortijo. Two years ago we started to harvest again for the first time since a long time. Our trees produced about 255 kilos of olives in that year. After a first pressing, a 50 liter biological Extra Virgin olive oil remained. This summer we decided to make a bolt plan to expand the production of the best olive oil you can get.
The olives will be ripe between December and February. So the harvest will start at the end of this year. Planning is key as it will effect the quality of the olive oil. Another key element will be rain at the end of the year.
So what's the plan?
50 Liters of olive oil is nothing compared to the large Spanish olive oil producers. But if you start selling, it is a nice start. But we have a trump card. Our neighbors have many ecologically maintained olive trees and they are willing to sell their biological olives to us. We are living in the middle of THE region which produces the best olive oil from hundreds of years old trees. So, the volume is not a question, neither is the quality of the olives. And we also know exactly from where these batches of olives of the different groves come from.
The pressing and certification
We established a relationship with a well-known olive press, which does not mix our olives with other olives from unknown areas before pressing. So they press only those olives we supply in a batch. Of course they also do other business with other olive farmers. Very important is the fact, that this press is certified by the local authorities in Malaga and therefore is allowed to carry the name 'Extra Virgin' olive oil when the quality of the oil finally meets the regulations. They are also allowed to export this oil. When the company with the press is not certified, you are not allowed to carry the name 'Extra Virgin'.
Production follows the rules
So now we are certain that the first pressing of the olives is below 27 degree Celsius, no chemicals are added, the oil is RAW (means: not filtered) and the production follows the rules according to the Spanish law. We are now allowed to carry the name 'Extra Virgin'. RAW / not filtered also means all of the finest tastes are still in the oil. Over time, these flavors slowly sink to the bottom and a sediment forms, which is not dangerous. You notice the same with good wine.
But here the story does not stop.
Track & Trace on the website
Conclusion: now we have very good biological olives, we have a certified pressing and production company and integrated in our website we have built in a section to provide all information there is to know about the oil in the bottle you buy. On the label of your bottle from Casa Junius you will find a date and batch number. On the olive page of the Casa Junius online shop you can trace back this date and number and the database provides you all information plus some pictures of the olive grove, where it all started. Now you know where your food is coming from and when it was produced.
Getting the bottle to you
So far, it is nice to have an excellent 'Extra Vierge' olive oil in a nice bottle, but this bottle needs to be in your kitchen somewhere in Holland or Belgium. Transport is very expensive and specially when the quantities are small. But we found a solution for this challenge as well. During the month we will gather all orders together and ship them together to Holland as additional cargo on a truck. Combining these packages saves much money over individual shipments. In Holland PostNL will take care of the distribution in Holland and Belgium. This is by far the cheapest way from Spain to Holland for small quantities. A shipment door-to-door of a box of 12 half liter bottles will cost approximately €15 - €16 or about €1,30 per bottle.
Price of half a liter 'Extra Vierge' olive oil
You may argue that we at Casa Junius are not really cheaper than the 'Extra Vierge' oil in the supermarket. That may be true. Keep in mind, that you buy straight from the producer, you can trace back our oil to its source, our oil is not filtered and full of flavorings and the growing and production is done biologically. No chemicals are added, not in the growing process nor in production. We are sure, you will taste the difference.
We hope, you will find us at the beginning of 2024 to buy our 'Extra Vierge' olive oil.