I am sitting here in the pitch black again in the olive mill. This time on a log end on the floor by the cauldron that still has some heat in it from the fire we built today under the bucket full of mushed olives. We have the rest of the afternoon off since the olive oil extraction was a completely engrossing job that lasted past our normal break time. For the first time since being here, the sky was dark this morning and during the milling a storm broke out. Water was coming through the roof in some spots as the mill is really old. We cleaned up the channel around the millstones the others did some cleaning of the press, and readying of the cauldron. Then Homayoun started up the motor which turns two giant cone shaped pieces of granite, that revolve on a bed of rock, with a channel around the outside and brushes to sweep out the crushed ones. The motor is an old motorcycle, with an adapted front wheel that rides around on a belt to turn everything. Merlin loaded the sacks of olives in through the top and they fell down in the center of the two cones, which gradually crushed and due to the shape of the surface, pushed the crushed olives out to the edge to fall into the channel. Probably every city person would be surprised at the hygiene (or lack of it) involved in an operation like this. Homayoun has a different attitude towards dirt. In other words he co-exists with it nicely, as long as it is natural - out here in the middle of nowhere. Delia did sweep up the dust and leaves on the rough concrete floor while I scrubbed the channel with an old brush. Tom stood at the spout where the crushed stuff was coming out and helped pull it down the funnel to fill buckets, which were then passed off to Delia, me and Iacopo. We delivered them to Falker (or Vulcan, because some of us can't pronounce his name properly), who was up on top of the cauldron, stirring the bucket of crushed olives with his whole arm. This is necessary because you need to keep the olives on the edge and bottom from burning but impossible to tell what the temperature is all the time with an implement. These olives will still be cold-pressed. The optimum temperature at which to get the oil out is 30 degrees or something like that. (Non cold pressed means they heat it up way more). When this vat was full we filled another one, and started spreading small bucketfulls onto round hemp mats that Merlin and Tom brushed clean of the dried remains of previous crushings. Homayoun and Delia attempted to spread layer on layer of crushed warmed olives onto these mats, piling them up under a press (of 1910 vintage). After a bunch of layers, the juice started running out under pressure of the mats above, into a channel in bare, rough and not incredibly clean looking concrete, and out into a 45 gallon drum with a sieve on top. I think it is supposed to take 70 layers. I don't know how many we did. We added more cold crushed olives into the cauldron to keep it from overheating, as this process went along. When all the crushed ones were in, we all concentrated on layering the mats and by this time were hungry, so stuck some potatoes directly onto the coals below the cauldron. Homayoun went out for a bit and we dipped the roasted potatoes into the fresh oil. The oil separated out with water running off into another bucket.

As the storm went on, our light went off and on. There was enough natural light but it wasn't bright in here. Quite a few times I looked around at what seemed like a black and white image from a previous time in the past. The light was dim and everyone was dirty and working away with ancient looking equipment in an even more ancient building.

Anyways, I went and made pesto out of lemongrass, tarragon and basil, with oil made on the premises (not today's yet), and we ate it over steamed chestnuts.

I have never used a pressure cooker and am trying currently to get over Homayoun being impatient with me for not operating it properly. Hopefully I will be able to deal with him or recognise when I should leave here... I really want to get off the internet and go hang out with everyone playing music in the house.