Properly stored, ie protected from light, olive oil can be kept for at least 24 months. Stored closed, cool and protected from light, it can even be kept for several years.

A lot of manual work is involved in the traditional olive harvest.

The olives for oil production are "combed" from the tree with rakes or so-called pneumatic combs - these are electrically operated vibrating rakes - and fall into nets that are spread out under the trees. After the branches and leaves have been cleaned, the olives are filled into sacks and taken to the olive mill on the same day, if possible.

The Kalamata olives are picked ripe with a rake or directly from the tree by hand. The hand-picked olives harvested in this way make excellent table olives when they are preserved in brine, vinegar and oil.

Our olive oil is an all-rounder. It is ideal for preparing cold and warm dishes. Olive oil is also suitable for frying, although vitamins and flavorings are best preserved if it is not heated.

Therefore our tip: Use only a little olive oil when frying and add a good dash to the food just before serving. Try it with vegetable dishes, stews and also with pasta.

You can make wonderful tapenades from our delicious Kalamata olives.

Basic recipe:

Pit 200 g olives, 2 cloves of garlic, 3 tbsp Eleas extra virgin olive oil, 1 tbsp lemon juice, pepper and salt as required - puree everything in a blender or with a stirrer.

Optionally, you can add herbs (basil, oregano, thyme), sundried tomatoes, roasted red peppers, capers or anchovies. In this way, you always get new tasty spreads.

An interesting variant of the popular potato salad as an accompaniment to grilled, briefly roasted meat or fish:

Boil jacket potatoes as usual,

peel and roughly chop into pieces;

the still warm potatoes

Serve with extra virgin olive oil and lemon juice (the order is important, otherwise the lemon juice will penetrate too much), oregano, salt and a little freshly ground pepper.