“The oil is not mine, it’s theirs, I transform the fruits and they just pay me this service”, explains enthusiastically Jean-Roch Ollier, master mill in Barbentane. In this town 15 minutes from Avignon, Jean-Roch produces seven vintages of his own, but he also makes common lots. For 46 cents per kilo of olives, individuals bring their harvest and from the beginning of December they come to collect their oil. “Sometimes they only leave with 25 centilitres depending on the weight added but they play the game it is thanks to them that the mill turns”, emphasizes Jean-Roch with passion. These common cuvées sometimes correspond to nearly 80% of the activity of the mills. For the master miller, it is above all a traditional attachment of Provence to olive growing.
Already 120 tonnes of pressed olives this year
Then the cars are linked to the entrance of the noisy mill. Marius is a regular, he has been coming to the Ollier mill since it opened 11 years ago. “The welcome is impeccable, they are kind”, insists Marius. He has brought 22 kilos of olives and will come to collect the precious liquid extracted from the fruit next month to offer it to his loved ones on the occasion of the Christmas holidays. A natural product since at the Ollier mill no additives are added to the recipe. Last season, a bad year according to Jean-Roch, the mill produced between 30,000 and 40,000L of olive oil. This year already 120 tonnes of fresh olives have arrived at the mill.
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