“In ancient days, a large piece of wood, called a bad, was used to press down on baskets filled with olives to produce oil,” Naveh said. Meshek Achiya’s oil press, however, is a modern facility, built in the community of Achiya – between Eli and Shilo, north of Jerusalem.Aside from being the only olive press in Yesha (Judea, Samaria and Gaza), Meshek Achiya is one of only 20 Jewish-owned presses out the 100 across Israel."

“We also grow 300 dunams (75 acres) of olive groves,” Naveh said, “and have managed to produce five times as much olive oil each year as adjacent Arab-owned trees, due to our supplying the trees with water and compost.”

"Another standard which Meshek Achiya upholds, is that of “cold pressing” the olives. “Cold press is the issue in olive oil,” he said. “When you take vegetables and make them into a soup, you kill most of the vitamins. So even though I can raise the temperature on the olives and get more and more oil, we are committed to not doing that.” Naveh said that almost all other olive presses use various methods to raise the temperature above the acceptable 35 degrees Centigrade, but “we truly don’t.”

"Meshek Achiya also adheres to the various aspects of Jewish law that govern agriculture performed by Jews in the Land of Israel. This includes letting the land lay unworked every seventh year, called shmittah."
 
 
 FULL STORY athttp://www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=82939