From Grove to Table: The Harvest Journey of EVOO at Seasons
Every autumn, there’s a moment when the grove seems to hold its breath. The light sharpens, the fruit blushes green-to-stone, and everyone’s phone is set to the weather app. In Jaén, Spain—home base for the family mill behind Seasons—this is when the year’s work compresses into hours. Olives that were pruned, watered, and guarded all year are suddenly racing the clock to become extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) worthy of your table.
This is the story of that sprint—how Seasons’ oils go from hand-picked olives to bottles with verve and nerve—told with on-the-ground detail from olive oil expert Emily Lycopolus and Seasons’ Co-Founder & President Soraya Aguilar Sánchez.
A Family Affair, Led with Care
Inside our mill, Carmen, Soraya’s sister, steps into the glassed-in control booth, directing traffic with complete focus. Olive oil expert Emily Lycopolus, who has visited us during harvest, remembers that moment vividly: “She was in charge, guiding every step, loving those olives all the way through.”
Harvest at Seasons begins in early October, a deliberate choice that sets us apart. Most producers in the region wait until November or December to maximize yield, but by then the olives are riper, the oil easier to extract…and the quality diminished. “We want to make sure all the olives are green,” explains our co-founder and president, Soraya Aguilar Sánchez. The yield is smaller, but the flavor, nutrients, and vibrancy are at their absolute peak.
Forty-Five Minutes to Perfection
The pace is urgent. From the moment fruit arrives at the mill, everything must move fast and precisely. Emily explains it best: winemakers can shape their flavors over months, but with olive oil, “you’ve got forty-five minutes to get it right. You can ruin a harvest in that window, and there’s no coming back.”
From there, the details matter. We cool, wash, and de-leaf the olives, then crush them into a paste that rests and churns in the malaxer (a piece of equipment used to slowly mix and knead crushed olives). This half-hour is where flavor is born—when aromas, enzymes, and phenols are coaxed from skin, pit, and flesh into the oil itself.
“To make regular olive oil is not difficult,” Soraya says. “But to make great extra virgin olive oil, everything has to happen perfectly, and everything can go wrong in seconds.” That’s why we insist on doing it ourselves. With our own mill, we don’t wait in line like most farmers; fruit is pressed within hours of being picked, and every machine is cleaned to spotless standards before harvest begins.
Once oil flows from the separator, our focus shifts to protecting it. Every batch is filtered within 12 hours through cellulose, then stored in nitrogen-blanketed tanks. Filtering clarifies the flavors and dramatically increases shelf life. Counterintuitively, extra virgin olive oil also keeps better in large volumes than in bottles, so our oils rest in their tank until needed, and only then are they bottled for you.
Nature’s Hand in Every Drop
Each year tastes different, a reflection of the weather, soil, and subtle choices in the mill. Rainfall, blossom timing, even ground cover under the trees all leave their fingerprints on the oil. That unpredictability is part of the magic. “You love the trees all year, but you never really know what it will taste like until harvest,” Emily says. Soraya agrees: “Every year is different. Our store managers can’t wait for the first oils to arrive so they can compare them side by side.”
In October, as Soraya likes to say, “the whole province smells like olive oil.” Trucks roll past on two-lane roads, the air green-gold with fruit and steam, and Carmen works late into the night, still taking samples and notes in the control booth.
The Joy—and Stress—of October
Harvest is beautiful, but it is not romantic in the way people sometimes imagine. It’s hard work. The picking starts early, before the fruit can warm in the sun. Trucks must move quickly. The mill must be ready, clean, and waiting. “It’s stressful,” Soraya admitted. “Because everything matters.”
And yet, it’s also magical. In Jaén, the scent of fresh oil drifts across the countryside. Villages buzz with activity. And at the end of each day, what emerges is something rare and fleeting: new harvest extra virgin olive oil, vibrant and alive, carrying the flavor of its grove, its year, and its makers.
From there, the journey becomes simpler: settle, filter, rest, bottle. But the pleasure is anything but simple. Pour it over warm bread with a pinch of salt, swirl into soup, finish roasted vegetables, or just take that first green, peppery hit on its own. That flavor is the reason we wake up before dawn, year after year, chasing the magic window where olives become extraordinary oil.
Written by: Hannah Howard
Author of Feast: True Love in and out of the Kitchen & Plenty: A Memoir of Food and Family