Chocolate Ice Cream and Spanish Olive Oil

By: Enely Hiciano

    Walking through the endless rows of olive trees in Seville, the cultural significance of the Spanish olive cannot be missed. I admired the dedication, the effort, and the thought process behind olive oil making. The Spanish olive oil is versatile, it can be used for cooking or cosmetics. Prior to visiting the Spanish olive oil farm, olive oil did not hold a special meaning to me, but after seeing the owner of this beautiful farm be effortlessly passionate about something that he essentially created, it began to hold a special meaning to me. I never realized the effort that went into the cultural products we use everyday, I admired the effort that he put and the time that he dedicated into making such a beautiful craft. Although olive oil could be found anywhere else in the world, physically seeing the process of how the oil is made, and having conversations with the mastermind behind the farm was something special to me. The owner closely monitors each olive tree in order to get the best quality products, the farm owner and his workers use different techniques to pick the olives from the trees, the olives then go into a machine and are smashed in order to get the most oil from the olive. I found it impressive how much knowledge the owner held about the origin of Spanish olive oil and the best technique to pick the olives so they don’t damage before being put into the machine, what season is best for growing the olive trees, and how to operate the machines in order to get as much oil as possible and keep it as fresh and virgin as possible. Before leaving the farm, I bought a couple items from the farm owner's store. My personal favorite item is the face moisturizer and just in the week that we’ve been back from Spain I have noticed a difference in my skin and the ingredients are natural as well. I also bought the oils that we tasted and I have fallen in love with chocolate ice cream and orange flavored oil. I also found it impressive the variety of oils and what each oil would work best with. After this experience, olive oil holds a special place in my heart, especially when I see it at the grocery store and I can think back to the time when I was on the farm and was able to truly see where olive oil is made, how it’s made and the people who make it happen.