It is difficult to imagine in this first quarter of the 21st century the agricultural Finestrat that it was not so long ago. Tourism and commerce are the economic basis of this municipality that has grown exponentially in the last 50 years. There is no longer a trace of that subsistence economy that marked the history of this small town. However, the neighbors continue to take care of their fields and enjoy the fruits that the land produces. Thus, when the cold arrives and the olive harvest begins, the memories of how the olives were taken to the oil mills, how they were pressed and stored and how this esteemed oily liquid was one of the most appreciated products in that society of shortages, come back to memory. which has nothing to do with today's, in which producing your own oil is a luxury that very few can boast of.

Finestrat has never been an oil producer. Then and now, its production has been destined for self-consumption. The difference lies in the fact that until the 70s of the last century, the transformation process was carried out in the oil mill that was in Finestrat and, now, it is carried out in the neighboring municipality of Relleu. In this long time, a lot has changed in the production process. The first oil mill arrives in the town by Vicente Climent Pallarés. It was the 40s. It could be said that oil extraction was made possible by animal and human traction. The olive was deposited in some sections and the beast moved the grinding stone until the fruit was well pressed, it became a paste and the liquid was extracted.

At the beginning of the 60s there were three oil mills in Finestrat. Two were owned by the Climent Pallarés family and the other by the Ortuño family. It was in this decade that a new, fully mechanized one was purchased, which made the job easier. It was located in the house that is still preserved in the Font de Carré park, today called Parc Alcalde Miguel Llorca. The farmers arrived there with their olives, which they deposited in a hopper. In this oil mill, the pasta fell into a kind of metal bathtub, which was hermetically sealed, and beat with large, extremely sharp blades until the oil came out.

In these years it was common to hear in the conversations of the residents of Finestrat words such as basseta (balsita), safa (receptacle where the olive is trodden) or peu (unit with which the olives were measured: 100 kilos). Food shortages were also common, hence there were practices that today would be considered heresy. Hunger was pressing and hot water had to be poured into the pasta so that more oil would come out. This was transported on donkeys, in clay pitchers. It was also worn by women on their heads. The large owners transported it in wineskins, which were made with the skin of the goat's body, previously emptied, dried and sewn. Once at home, it was kept in glazed clay jars.

When the moon changed in January, the oil was transferred to a new jar. It was not poured, it was poured with a saucepan so that the impurities were left behind. Thus a new oil appeared, called lampante, which was used to light lamps and to make soap, when mixed with caustic soda, which arrived in Finestrat at the end of the nineteenth century.
The arrival of tourism in the province of Alicante meant the end of oil production in Finestrat. The oil mill closed its activity in the 70s, partly because waste could no longer be thrown into the sewer and, in part, because a great economic and social transformation was taking place that led to abandoning agriculture. The young people went to the construction, mainly to Benidorm, and the mythical "Barbacoa" was opened in the area of La Tapià, which was a chicken and rib roaster, capable of serving more than 1000 people, and which allowed them to have extra work on weekends. which was when tourists arrived in buses from the neighboring town. The existence of the Finnatratenses changed radically. The standard of living increased considerably and that precarious life was definitively abandoned to lay the foundations of the tourist and commercial Finestrat that is today this municipality on the Costa Blanca.