Community mills on the rise in France

People filled baskets with olives from October to December in the South of France, eager to turn them into fresh olive oil. Thousands gather outside local olive mills in a celebratory atmosphere. “It’s an annual tradition,” Alexandra Paris, the communications director at France Olive, a producers’ association, told Olive Oil Times. ​“It’s always been like that. Every year, independent customers, including families, who own olive trees go to olive mills.” Among the mills is the 200-year-old Bargemon, managed by the Moli d’Oli association. It hosted crowds of people who had harvested olives from trees in their gardens and were eager to press their precious cargo into green gold. “This harvest season has been extraordinary,” Catherine Pelissou, the association’s president, told Olive Oil Times. ​“Normally, we press about 70 tons of olives, but this year, we pressed 106 tons, making 15,000 liters of olive oil, nearly double the amount we are used to.” While many producers with modern ...