As you should all know by now, marteños are obsessed with olive oil. They are said to be the first producers of olive oil in the world, and they are proud of it. And they might just be justified in this obsession because the olive oil here is truly phenomenal.
December 8th was the Olive Festival. The week before my preschool celebrated with a group of mothers coming in and making ollos for all the students and teachers. Ollos are chocolate and olive oil sandwiches. Sounds wierd, but it is pretty good actually!
The actual day of the festival, the whole town turned out at our little park where the city handed out packets of bread, a mini bottle of olive oil, a cube of dried fish, and a little bag of olives. It was mayhem trying to get a packet, but boy, oh boy, was is worth it. I tried the fish... it wasn't my favorite. But the olive oil- WOW.
Then they demonstrated the traditional way of making olive oil. They layered the olives on these mats, then pressed them with this ginormous contraption. Check out the videos! In the second one, you can actually see the oil oozing out!
There was also a little market with different specialty foods. I got a bag of freshly roasted candied almonds and missed NY. There was also a little booth with various herbal teas for various ailments, including menopause and herpes. LOL!
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