Cultivating Our Premium Olive Oil
Tree Cultivar
Al Yaqoota is made from the Nabali variety, with saplings from Bayt Nabala, the variety’s namesake, west of Jerusalem, hybridised with indigenous wild olive trees. This provides Al Yaqoota with an exquisite and distinct flavour, unique within the world’s olive oil organoleptic spectrum, with a fruity flavour permeating a balanced pungency-bitterness.
Tree Health
At our farm, we undertake tree pruning, natural pest management, in-situ fertilising, soil care and protective harvesting methods.
Pruning
Proper pruning is critical for tree and fruit health. It removes unwanted parts that are a burden on the tree’s food supply, promotes healthy branch growth, and purges old branches and dense foliage, which allows for the penetration of life-giving sunlight and a healthy airflow. This results in an environ optimal for the fruits to flourish.
Harvesting
We use traditional handpicking method for harvesting. Every year local families and resident refugee families converge at the farm for a festive season, residing for about a month, taking as long as is needed for all the trees to be harvested with care.
We have used electric harvesting tools as well. But prefer the traditional hand-gathering method that is more “organic” and personal, and also provides a good source of income to the families involved.
Integrity of the Olive Fruit
Harvesting method, handling (use of well-aerated boxes with low-density packing), and speed between picking and milling greatly impact quality. The olive starts to deteriorate the moment it is picked! Therefore, to ensure the highest quality of oil possible, we mill our freshly-harvested olives within a few hours.
Milling
Today’s technology allows for better quality oil via milling as opposed to the old pressing method. It is a delicate play of parameters to provide the best conditions for the various enzymes present in the olive fruit to do their magic and give us the most health-providing polyphenols possible with a fruity, well-balanced flavour.
Amongst other areas, we prioritise the following: Mill cleanliness, use of clean water, machine maintenance and calibration to provide sufficient time for malaxation and oil separation, and of course temperatures below 27°C to favour the “good” enzymes to work.
Quality Control
Each milled batch has a unique number, which identifies trees’ location, harvest date, and details pertaining to the trees’ history and care. Furthermore, laboratory test results are associated with the batch, as well as organoleptic tests.
Packaging and Storage
It is an unfortunate fact of nature that olive oil’s health-providing molecules start to break down from the moment a healthy olive is picked from its branch. Our job is to reduce the oil’s ageing process as much as is humanly possible. Once the oil is out of our control, we hope that those who have received our oil ensure that the oil is isolated as much as possible from sunlight, heat and the oxygen in the air to allow the oil to take the slowest possible ageing path that it can take. Olive oil should be kept in a dark, airtight and cool environment in an inert container (glass or well-treated metal) to avoid any reactions with the container surface.
Collaboration
We are proud to synergise with our neighbours and the local communities to provide you with healthy, sustainable, ecofriendly olive oil and its packaging.
