 double duty
When my dad was making wine in our basement in North California, he built his own house and specifically designed it with a 1/4 basement so he could make and store wine, one of the contraptions he had was a crusher and a grape press. It is a hand operated tool with a couple of gears. The working end looks like oversized gears that don't mesh too well but would break a finger if someone owed you vig. Dad made a hopper that he loaded up with bunches of grapes, stems and all the crushers would pop the grape skins and not mangle the stems. The catch for this was a large garbage pail that would be end up as the start of the first ferment. I bet this devise would work on olives too.
tangent....
Now the grape press was cool in its own as the pulp would some out as a perfect 12 inch by 6 inch shaped cake. One of my mom's cousins perturbed my dad one month and mom said don't worry he will get his due. For his birthday mom made him a grape cake. Homemade frosting on the cake. Mom somehow was able to cut this thing and convince her cousin to have a bite. I put this up there with mom's chocolate covered soap.  |