Se confonde des jours entiers,
Qu’un buveur, que rien ne chagrine,
A boire mette son plaisir.
Moi je ne forme qu’un desir,
C’est d’être aimé de ma voisine.
The air becoming sensibly cooler, it was determined to remove to our winter-quarters in Nice, leaving St. Rosalie to its peasantry, now about to commence getting in the olives, and express the oil, which is the richest part of their harvest. The best olives are those which grow wild, but the quantity of these is inconsiderable; they begin to collect them in the early part of November, and this is repeated at intervals until March or April; the fruit is beaten off the trees with long canes as it ripens, which is known by its turning from a light green to a very dark colour. The oil must be expressed immediately, and before the olives fade or grow wrinkled, otherwise it will not be good. The whole are, in the first instance, ground into paste by a millstone, set edgeways in a circular stone trough, and turned by a mule or the power of water; this paste is then put into cases, made of the same kind of grass which is so much used in the Mediterranean for the manufacture of ropes and cables; six or eight of which are piled one over the other, and then subjected to a powerful press for a few minutes, by which the oil is forced out, and received into a stone reservoir placed beneath it. While the oil is passing from the press, hot water is frequently dashed over it, to make it flow the better. The whole fluid is now transferred into a wooden vat, half filled with water, in which the dregs fall to the bottom, while the supernatant oil is skimmed off, and stored up in small oblong casks.
The remnant is now thrown into a large stone cistern containing water, and allowed to continue there twelve or fourteen days, frequently stirring it during that time; a coarser oil is then taken from its surface, which serves for the purpose of burning in lamps, or in manufactories. After these processes, they separate an oil still more coarse and fetid, and occasionally grind the paste down with hot water, which extracts a yet greater quantity of oily matter, but which in this case soon grows rancid.
The dregs which remain after these operations, when dried, are used as a fuel; particularly for warming, by means of brasieres, apartments without chimneys.
There is, however, a very peculiarly fine preparation, called virgin oil, and which is a great delicacy, eating like the sweetest butter; this is made from green olives, and sold at a high price, as a great quantity of the fruit yields but little oil.