Olive Oil Mill During Pressing Season

Inside a stone mill, a large stone wheel grinds heaps of green and purple olives into paste while a man pushes the wooden beam that turns it. Nearby, a woman carries a basket of olives to add to the grinding stone, and another woman pours golden oil into a jug beneath the tall wooden screw press. A third woman sorts freshly picked olives at a table stacked with baskets, and a man in the background stacks sacks and jars near a large copper cauldron. Wicker baskets brimming with olives line the floor, clay amphorae and barrels stand along the walls, and small jars of finished oil sit ready on a front table. Each basket holds olives from a different batch, keeping the harvest sorted long before it becomes oil.