A visit to Egli’s Olive Grove, watered by Springs running off Mount Olympus

After the Honey Fair and Food Expo I headed for Larissa, to meet up with Egli.

She picked me up late morning and we headed in her 4 x 4 towards Mount Olympus.

Reaching it is a mission, we drove down winding dirt roads into the hills with no other farms in sight.

Then we turned into the olive grove, which is on a hillside and headed up a very steep track to the top of the olive grove.

Her olive grove is unlike any other olive grove I have ever visited – like a nature reserve, as you will see when I read on.

I first visited Egli's grove a couple of summers ago, but I returned this March to see how the land—and the oil—were shaping up after a tough season the year before.

This time, Egli walked me through the grove and filled me in on more of the details—how the trees are fed by streams running down from Mount Olympus, and how she selected this place for its purity.

It is a truly awesome place.

There are no neighbours spraying insecticides or pesticides, no modern roads.

Inside the grove there are just wild herbs underfoot and the sound of goats in the distance.

Unlike a lot of olive farmers Egli does not clear the weeds (there is good evidence that the competition between the plants and trees increases the level of polyphenols in the oil).

Egli's olive grove is the wildest I have ever seen.

As she explained, she harvests everything by hand—no machines shaking the trees—and the olives go straight to the press the same day.

That's important, because delays can affect the oil's quality.

(Evidence for the success of this approach is in the laboratory analysis of the latest batch of Egli’s oil. The acidity level is 0.08. This is super low. In fact, I have never seen an analysis of olive oil with such a low level. Low acidity is a key indicator of the fact that the olives were picked with no bruising and processed very quickly.)

The variety for this oil is Amphisis.

To learn more about Egli’s oils visit: Egli's Organic Biodynamic Extra Virgin Olive Oil

To see Egli explaining more about her olive grove and the practices she follows, watch the video above.