There are events that are once in a lifetime, and on Saturday I was invited to such an experience. Deborah Piña, the events organizer runs a very small business here on the island. She is what I like to call a true Brand Ambassador for the island, specializing in preserving the traditions around gastronomy and agriculture. She had met the owners of the Pedruxella Gran Estate a few years before and together they are able to showcase some of the now lost traditions on the island, one of them being a tradition Tafona. A Tafona is the ancient way that the local people made Olive Oil, it was also thanks to the Tafona that we now have the Pa amb Oli. The event was so much more than being walked through the process, from Olive to Oil. It took you back in time on how hard and laborious this job was, and in the case for Olives grown in the Serra de Tramuntana, still is. 

It was a full day filled with a bit of work to collect the Olives from the tree, done in the same way as it was in the past. My favorite part was watching Tolo's 2 sons really get involved, long stick in hand, like they were practicing for baseball tryouts! I couldn't help but snap a couple extra shots of them. 

After a long days work in the Olive Grove we made our way down the mountain to our table in the sun. Deborah had created a very simple menu of typical Mallorcan dishes, sobrassada and honey, a gorgeous salad with bright pomegranate seeds and juicy pears picked straight from the garden. When you picture a lunch with friends in the Mediterranean, this was it! Rosé wine supplied by the neighboring vineyard, Mortitx. The food kept coming in colorful large bowls, the laughter contagious and your wine glass was always full. I couldn't think of any place I would have rather been at that moment. 

The day was only half over as our schedule after lunch was the actual pressing of the Olives, we were here to see it all. We watched as Tolo turned on a machine twice his age that cleaned the olives of their leaves, then beginning to load them down into the Tafona. So how did it work, how did you get Oil from such a tiny fruit?

YOU CRUSH IT! 

THANK YOU TO MY 8 TASTE MAKERS THAT TRUSTED ME ON SHOWING THEM SOMETHING SO VERY SPECIAL. MAKE SURE YOU WATCH MY FACEBOOK PAGE FOR ALL SORTS OF GREAT EVENTS, AND BECOME A TASTE MAKER.