Frantoio Batta

The Batta family has handed down the knowledge and love for olives from generation to generation: from Giovanni Batta to his son Gregorio up to the latter's son, Giovanni.

The founder founded the Batta oil mill in 1923. The first plant was replaced in 1949 by a new oil mill, which was innovative for its time. Today, the grandson who bears the same name as the founder of the oil mill has taken over the reins of the family business and continues the work started by his grandfather with just as much passion and desire to innovate.

The Batta family produces extra virgin olive oil from the olives they harvest on their 14-hectare estate on Strada San Girolamo, the long road that connects Perugia to Ponte San Giovanni. On average, the 3,400 olive trees, some of which are centuries old, yield a harvest of 350 quintals. Once processed, the olives yield about 6000 litres of refined extra virgin olive oil. Batta's extra virgin olive oil is processed in a modern plant and is extracted cold: continuous temperature control ensures that it never exceeds 27 degrees.

When the olives begin to ripen, Giovanni and the other people involved in the harvest take to the fields and spend their days in close contact with the plants. Harvesting takes place according to an ancient and precise ritual: first the cotton cloths are spread at the base of the plant, then the fruit is picked and finally the harvest is collected before moving on to the next plant. Depending on the characteristics of the soil and the plant, harvesting can be manual or mechanical. Before being taken to the oil mill for washing and pressing, olives are left to rest and air in special crates whose bottoms are covered with small lake canes.