Unsurprisingly locally produced olive oil plays an important role in Mallorcan cuisine. The production of oil dates back to the 13th century and in the 19th century it accounted for around 80% of the islands exports. When tourism arrived on the island in the 20th century, production rates dropped but now people are seeing a resurgence of the industry. While I was in Mallorca, I visited the Solivellas family and their olive orchards of three and a half thousand trees, the most ancient of which is over 800 years old. The family has been farming this land for many generations but it was just 16 years ago that they transplanted some ancient olive trees to their land and started producing olive oil, Sebastià Solivellas explained. They now grow 6 varieties of olives which are harvested each year, when they are still green, by laying sheets on the ground and tapping the branches with sticks so that the olives drop down. Harvesting the olives early means less oil is produced but the quality is better. The olives are crushed the same day, just a few hours after they have been picked, which also ensures top quality oil. Using a cold centrifuge system,  the juice is extracted from the olives mechanically (without using any chemical agents as some producers do). Only oil produced in this way can be deemed to be extra virgin olive oil. It takes 9 kilos of olives to make just 1 litre of oil and the family now produces over 40,000 litres of extra virgin olive oil a year – that’s a hell of a lot of olives!