Partner Profile: Elisabetta and Frantoio Rossi

Elisabetta Rossi’s family has been from Umbria and the area around Pierantonio for as far back as anyone knows and has been mastering the art of olive oil milling for the last three generations. In 1880 the family purchased an existing mill situated next to a small stream that still feeds into the Tiber River. Back then water pressure and a donkey turned the grinding wheels that crushed “grano tenero” or soft wheat into flour, grains into feed, as well as olives into oil. Along an old road to Gubbio, it is rumored that the site later on in history was known as a haven for local partisans resisting the Nazis during WWII. 

The entrance to Frantoio Rossi today, Pierantonio

The Old Press. Straw mats or “fiescoli” were stacked and pressed tight to squeeze oil from crushed olives. Sometimes water or heat was added to aid in extraction reducing the oil quality. Thus the term “Cold Pressed” was attached to the highest quality EVOO.

The Rossi’s eventually transitioned from grain, focused their expertise on olives and moved the mill toward town where they had more space and could evolve. Step by step they abandoned the traditional stones used for crushing the olives and pits, the straw presses for extracting the oil from the olive paste, and decanters for skimming oil as it separated from water.

Paste of crushed olives was spread on to “fiescoli”. Liquid extracted from this pressing settled in decanters where the oil was eventually skimmed off from water as it separated.

Maria and Elisabetta in front of the centrifuge PIeralisi Leopardi 5.

By 2015 Frantoio Rossi had completely modernized the whole operation, becoming the first in Umbria with a Pieralisi Leopard 5 centrifuge. Now after the olives are crushed and mixed into paste the centrifuge extracts the oil without the addition of heat or water or exposure to air. So technically, the olives are no longer “pressed”. It may not seem as romantic but the oil this way retains maximum polyphenol content and flavor.

Today the frantoio is gleaming with steel, green tile, white washed walls and the smell of olive oil that does not dissipate even in the middle of summer during the quiet time. A curved section of plastered wall, an artifact from the donkey’s path around the grindstone, is a daily reminder to Elisabetta of her commitment to tradition. Her father passed away last year after ill health and it is now up to her to run the mill alone with her sister and mother helping in the office when things get busy during harvest.

Nonno’s Truck

Elisabetta’s grandfather used this old truck for picking up olives and delivering freshly pressed oil to clients’ homes.

Elisabetta is very modest personally but bullish about the olive growing culture in Umbria. Despite fewer families in the business she reports there is increased interest. She has clients that come from as far as Gubbio and one from Perugia who just earned a 2nd place prize in L’Oro d’Italia 2021 in Fano. We feel very fortunate to have her in our valley and are very excited to be working with her utilizing her deep seated knowledge as we expand our offering.

Older and younger generations keeping traditions alive.