Rome - 22. Chapter 22

The boys moved the press to the grove. "Sir, how does this work."

"I think you put the olives in here, and then when you rotate this wheel, the olive get's crushed, and the oil runs here where you can collect it in a jar. I think with this one, you need a pitcher, and then you pour it into a jar."

"What do we do with the part that isn't oil?"

"When we no longer can get oil, we'll see if the animals will eat it. If not, we'll use it in the gardens."

"Maybe Felix can find a way to use it with his eggs," they laughed.

"Is this press bigger than the other press we have?"

"Yes. We'll use the small press for wine. We need the larger for olive oil. Seth, go and ask Aumen for a large basket. We will need it to collect the olives."

While Seth was gone, Sandro tried to turn the wheel. "We will need a lot of strength to turn the wheel."

Seth came back with Aumen and the rest of the boys. They wanted to see the press crushing the olives. Lucinius had the boys gather the olives. "We need to separate the pits from the olives. To do that, we will crush the olives with the press at the top of the center pole at this mark. Once the olives are crushed, we need to separate the pits. Then we can begin to crush the olives for their oil."

"What do we do with the olives once we remove the pits?

"We'll place the olives in this cloth bag that Aumen brought. Then we will crush it with the press. The oil will run into that well, we'll add water to it, and the oil will rise, and we can drain the oil into the jars. We will press the bag twice more and separate the oil from each press."

The boys were ready. They crushed the first basket of olives, removed the pits, and then placed the bag under the stone. The stone was dropped, rotate on the bag. As the oil drained off the plate into a collection reservoir, the boys added water from the well. The oil rose to the top and emptied into a jar.

"Felix, go and bring some bread and oil from the kitchen."

Lucinius was going to make this a teaching lesson as well. Felix returns with the bread and oil. "I want you to taste this."

He took pieces of bread that Felix had brought, dip it in the oil that Felix had brought. "Remember this taste."

Then he took some bread and dipped it into the oil that they just separated. "This tastes different. I like it better than what we tasted before."

"Now we need to press this bag a little harder."

They dropped the plate down another notch. The oil from this press went into the reservoir, the boys added water, and placed the oil in a different jar. They tasted this oil and said it tastes like the oil in the kitchen. Lucinius tasted it and agreed. It was the same oil as the kitchen used. He was angry. The vendor in the city said it was the first press and charged him accordingly.

When the oil from this press was collected, he lowered the plate and pressed again. The oil ran into the same reservoir, and the boys added water to float the oil for collection. Then boys took a piece of bread and tasted this oil. Felix said he would use this oil in his cooking. It had the taste of the olives but was lighter in color. Not as dark as the first press or the second press. One of the boys noted the difference as Felix was talking.

"I don't understand?"

"The first oil we receive, which you tasted is the best, then the second press of the same olives will produce the oil we buy, and there is a third press which has no taste."

"How can you get more oil out after you press it twice with the stone. I'd think there would be no more oil."

"Do you see this lever? Look where the stone is on the center shaft. If I put the lever here, the stone will drop down on the shaft and press the olives more. When we have pressed these olives the second time, I'll drop the stone again and press a third time." I noticed all of the boys were watching and listening.

The rest of the day, we pressed the olives. At the end of the first day, we had twelve jars of the first press, nine jars of the second press, and three of the third press. Felix came and gathered the crushed olives.

I asked his father what is he going to do with those. "Felix's mother added them to her bread."

"But there are parts of the stone in that."

He will sieve that stone out. He has helped his mother do that many times."

Thinking about these boys, I wondered what happened to their families. "Aumen, what do you suppose happened to the family of these boys. We know that Felix's father is here. But what happened to his mother?"

"If what happened to his was the same as mine, they killed them." I looked at Aumen as he said that there were tears in his eyes. I won't ask the boys. They are happy and don't need them to think about the past.

For the next five days, we pressed the olives. Some we kept to eat. I left a few on the trees. They were still a little green. Now I had a problem. I didn't have enough jars to hold the oil. All of my jars were filled with the first and second pressing. I had several tubs filled with the third pressing. "Aumen, I'm going to sell the third pressing at the market. I'll give my mother and Gaius a pitcher of the first pressing and the priest at the Temple."

"When do you want to go to the Market?"

"As soon as that rider has a chance to go hunting." Aumen looked as he saw a horse and rider coming up the road. We waited on the porch. He jumped off his horse, grabbed me in a hug. Nour went and led his horse to the stable.

"This is a surprise."

"I thought you might be pressing your olives, Father finished. Did you get a lot of oil?"

"Yes, we were just talking about taking some to market."

"How much oil do you have, Father said he had less this year than last year. Something about less rain this year."

"I think he needs a system like I have. We had a good year and there are still some olives on the trees. They weren't ripe enough to press. Come and taste my olive oil."

We went to the kitchen, and I asked Felix to pour a little of the oil from the first press in a dish and give us some bread. I watched Duccius, dip his bread into the olive oil. As he took a bite, his eyes got big. "This is your first press?"

"Yes, the oil we bought in the market was the second press."

"They sold it as first press."

"Yes, but now that you have tasted the first press, have some wine, and you can taste the second press."

Felix listening, went and poured some of the second press on a plate and handed it to Duccius. I watched as he dipped his bread and took a bite. "If this is your second press, what does your third press taste like."

Felix handed him a cup of wine while he went and got some third press from one of the tubs. Duccius repeated his tasting with bread.

"What were you going to do with this press?"

"I was going to sell it as oil for the lamps."

He smiled, "I'll buy it all from you." I laughed. "The bakers would buy this from you."

I looked at him, "Sir, we need some for when I make my egg specials. The oil is good for cooking."

I smiled. Duccius helped us load the wagon with the tubs, except one I saved for the kitchen. He said he would go to the city with us, but he wanted a jar of my first press. I prepared a jar for him, Gaius, and a jar for the Temple. Before we left, Duccius had to go hunting. He left in the morning and returned the next morning with a deer. I put the deer on the cart, and we left. I took two of the boys with me, including Aeneas. Aumen chose to stay home, so Aeneas rode his horse.