After many years that our farming land laid dormant and unproductive, we decided to undertake the recovery of this vital sector of our acreage to what once was its brilliant past. In the past years, we executed a program to recover old trees and plant new saplings, and are delighted to have several years of olive harvest to produce our own Extra Virgin Olive Oil right from our land.
Our olives are picked by hand and brought to the mill immediately upon harvest, for it to be processed cold, the method required to be able to attain the Extra Virgin classification. The acidity level registered by the official laboratory is at .04 percent, an excellent result as compared to the acidity level of .08 percent required for Extra Virgin classification.
Masia La Mota is fortunate to have its agriculture property at a ground elevation, ranging from 650 to 800 meters above sea level. Having a high elevation could affect the adequate workability of many olive varieties. The variety chosen by our predecessor’s many ages ago was selected because of its ability to resist these heights. Having examined these and other qualities discovered about the variety, we decided to continue growing this particular olive, the Alfafarenca.
According to investigations carried out by the Polytechnic University of Valencia, the Alfafarenca olive tree was brought by the Phoenicians to the area conformed by settlements currently known as Sierra de Mariola, Alfafara and Beneixama. This location has a common elevation approximating 700 meters above sea level. The origin of the Alfafarenca olive tree is claimed to have been brought from mountains in Lebanon about 2,500 years ago. The terrain found there have similar characteristics to our terrain in Masia La Mota. It is interesting that Lebanon continues production of an identical variety perfectly adapted to their terrain and genetically identical to our Alfafarenca olive.
Agriculturalists from our subject area have always valued the Alfafarenca oil for its strength in general, its firmness of stem and root, and for the high content of polyphenols. There are several factors that contribute to how polyphenols are present in any given olive oil. In the case of the Alfafarenca, our trees are subject to harsh growing conditions and an elevation that induces the tree to produce olives with a higher polyphenol count than that of other olive varieties. In addition, our oil is not refined, as this process will reduce the flavor and the presence of polyphenols.
