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February 2009 - Vincent Scully goes to Sicily

Early in 2009 LHEO and LHUSA visited the island of Sicily to look at the citrus growing areas. Sicily is a country based on the traditional but has embraced new technologies with a passion. 

if you look at the manufacture of essential oils the old process consisted of cutting the lemons in half with a sharp knife, removing the flesh and squeezing the empty skins against natural sea sponges in order to remove the oil, with the sponges then pressed and the oil recovered. Today's modern plant is a network of stainless steel pipes and vats with computer controlled processes but still with quality at the forefront. 

There are a wide range of citrus products grown on the island including the following

• Lemons: Femminello and Monachello
• Blood Oranges: Tarocco, Sanguigno, Sanguinello and Moro
• Blonde Oranges : Biondo Comune, Ovale, Navel, Navelina and Valencia
• Mandarins: Avana and Tardivo di Ciaculli.
   

We visited a wide range of citrus groves and manufacturers from large to small and looked at the various processes used to manufacture Essential Oils. It was good time to visit as there were plenty of Lemon's and Oranges being processed while we were there.

We took the opportunity to move over to mainland Italy to the Calabria region to visit a number of Bergamot processors and had he opportunity to see Bergamot Oil being processed at a number of factories.