Olive Oil

SACRED TREES, THE FRUIT OF DIVINITY
The olive groves will tell you of another Priorat, consisting of the dry-stone terraces, ponds, caves and woods that lie between the cultivated areas and the Montsant mountain range. This is a Mediterranean landscape full of blue-tinted trees that gave shade to the gods, growing slowly and stubbornly. If destroyed by frost, plague or a fi re, the tree will sprout anew from the stump.

The ancient olive groves with their firm, broad and twisted trunks, are painstakingly picked by hand each autumn to ensure that the fruit is not damaged. The multi-coloured olives fall: arbequina, farga and rojal varieties. When pressed they become sweet extra virgin olive oils (D.O.P. Siurana*) with an intense fruity aroma. * (D.O.P. Siurana- the name that guarantees the place of origin of the product).

These oils add flavour to the most typical dishes: Salted herring with peas, brosses soup (a stew made with bread and meat), festa major potatoes (a lasagne made with potatoes instead of pasta), empanadillas (small cottage pies) and orelletes (fried sweet pastries). Above all, the oil gives a special touch to the Priorat region’s greatest delicacy - spinach and white bean omelette in its own sauce, a dish which has a unique taste but is never exactly the same twice.

Geological characteristics, limestone soils, slate-based soils and granite, coupled with extreme temperatures (hot summers and cold winters) are all favourable factors for the cultivation of the olive tree. All these factors give the olives their own distinctive taste and aroma which are unique to the Priorat region.

A group of olive oil producing co-operatives decided to create the Priorat Olive Growers Association in 2002. (AOP). The association is aimed at improving the quality of the raw product, the production process and the distribution and sales of Priorat olive oil.