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Scientists are trying to catalogue hundreds of olive trees, some more than 1,000 years old, on the Greek island of Crete in a bid to save them from abandonment amid falling olive prices, an agronomy institute said on Wednesday.

Olives have for centuries been a Cretan staple and a major source of income but falling prices threaten the trees’ as the crop is unprofitable.

Some of trees date back more than 1,000 years, as old as Greece’s famed archaeological treasures, scientists say. “We want to determine the age of these natural monuments and protect them,” Dimitris Lidakis, director of Crete’s School of Agronomy told AFP.

Hundreds of olive trees have already been cleared for construction, prompting the environmental initiative organised by some 30 associations and supported by the local technical institute.

Organiser Bella Lasithiotaki said there was one olive tree in the northern village of Vrysses in Rethymno prefecture that was more than 1,000 years old, with a trunk around 20 metres (66 feet) in circumference.

Another four trees of the same age have been located in the neighbouring prefecture of Iraklio, the semi-state Athens News Agency reported.

On a visit to Greece last year, Chinese President Hu Jintao visited a Crete archaeological cooperative where he helped workers picking olives.

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By Ron Brown,

With Southern Oregon establishing it’s reputation for growing grapes, another warm climate crop is starting to take root.

More than 130 acres between Jacksonville and Medford are the beginning of what some hope will be an olive oil industry in the Rogue Valley.

Olive tree Grower Jeff Hoyal has planted more than 86,000 Greek and Spanish olive varieties he believes are well-suited to this area’s weather and soil.

“We have Koriniki, which is a Greek variety, a very peppery oil. We have Arbisona, which is a Spanish variety and is a very sweet oil. And then we have Arbiqina, which is another Spanish variety, which is a very buttery oil. And all three of them are, historically, create the top quality extra virgin oil that, that you’re really looking for,” Olive Tree Grower Jeff Hoyal said.

The Oregon State University extension service in Southern Oregon is also experimenting with 60 trees in a test plot.

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A rural Industries Research Development Corporation study has shown that olive growers can reduce their irrigation without sacrificing yield.

The study also suggests the characteristics of the olives are not affected by reducing water volumes.

The study, Olive Crop Management for Optimal Sensory and Chemical Quality Project, was carried out over four years at a large property near Yarrawonga in Victoria.

The project’s chief investigator, NSW DPI scientist Dr Rodney Mailer, said the outcomes indicated that growers were applying more water than they needed to achieve a satisfactory crop.

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As California’s olive oil industry expands and refines, designations of various grades of oil are becoming more distinct and more identifiable.

Consumers will face challenges as they learn to differentiate between extra virgin (high-quality) and oil pressed from the pomace of cull olives. All of the oil is expected to move through one market level or another.

Help is on the way. A new California law specifies and adopts international olive oil grades. How that will affect marketing and movement of the growing supply of oil is discussed in a report by two agricultural and resource economists at the University of California, Davis.

Assistant Professor Travis Lybbert and Ph.D. candidate Christopher Gustafson wrote about the law and its effect in the January/February issue of Update, published by the university’s Giannini Foundation of Agricultural Economics.

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A new trend is changing the olive industry in the north state, now it’s all about the oil olives and the expensive liquid gold they produce.

In the olive city, there’s a new boom surrounding the fruit, Vice President of Crane Mills Brian Crane says, “The olive oil industry is what wine was decades ago.”

Several olive growers, including Crane Mills in Corning, are starting up new oil olive crops and building processing plants to produce olive oil.

Crane says, “With any new venture people are hopping on board just like we did, but there’s a potential to be over plantings.”

Crane just planted 200 acres of the oil olives, or Spanish Arbequinas.

Processor owner Ray Rogers of Corning Olive Oil Company believes the value of the olive oil he produces will decline as more businesses jump into the oil market.

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By Brian Clark Howard,

Olive oil has many valuable uses beyond cooking, from personal care to home improvement, natural remedies and beyond. Also see money-saving uses for ketchup, vinegar and vodka.

Olive oil is more than a cartoon character, historic symbol of peace and glory or food staple of the much-vaunted Mediterranean diet. It is actually tremendously useful stuff, finding applications in personal care, home improvement, green cleaning, natural remedies and other areas.

It’s long been reported that there are a number of health benefits of olive oil. As a foodstuff it has a high concentration of monounsaturated fatty acids, which studies show promote “good” cholesterol (HDL) while lowering “bad” cholesterol (LDL). Olive oil is also known to be gentle on the digestive system, and even may help prevent gallstones and soothe ulcers. Good quality olive oil contains valuable vitamins and nutrients, and it is loaded with antioxidants, which many believe help protect the body from cancer.

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By Sheryl Walters,

Our bodies and immune systems are constantly fighting off foreign things such as pollution, bacteria and viruses. Stress from our fast paced lives is a leading cause of the further weakening of our body’s ability to combat illnesses.

Using drug substances, that act as an antibiotic, can actually weaken our immune systems and it is predicted by medical experts, that super viruses will soon occur for which there will be no drug cure.

Because we want to do what’s best for our body, we desire to put only natural substances into it. Drugs can cause harmful effects! That is why it is essential that we human beings look to natural health for our health answers. Olive leaf is one such remedy.

Olive leaf dates back to around 1000 B.C. It has been known to work as a powerful antioxidant. The leaves of both the Mission and Manzanillo Olive trees have been used for thousands of years, and were first known in the Mediterranean area of the world for their ability to promote good health and wellness. In the past decade, it has also become a well know herb in the United States and other places of the world.

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I started with badly scuffed hardwood floors. From years of rolling office chairs back and forth, first the typewriter on the desk, then the computer. The wood had worn down to its bare, raw wood condition. Without sanding and staining the old 1950s hardwood floors, I took a dampened sponge mop, spilled a half cup at a time of the extra virgin olive oil (large bottle for about $14 at Sam’s Club) on the living room, foyer, and bedroom hardwood floors, and mopped the floors with a wet sponge against the thick olive oil on the  floors.

Miraculously, almost, the damp sponge mop covered with olive oil not only rolled the stray dog hairs into a roll that easily could be picked up, but also took off the dirt and at the same time polished the hardwood floor to a Victorian-era shine. The next step focused on the micro fiber cloth on a waxing mop to soak up the excess oil after the olive oil had been soaking in the wood for two hours.

The shine remained for weeks on a cleaner floor. Next, the olive oil on a separate micro fiber cloth polished my scuffed and worn oak table and other wooden furniture. This is my family’s tradition, to clean and polish wood in one step. A different quality extra virgin cold pressed and/or expeller pressed olive oil always stands on my table for putting on food. And a tablespoon of olive oil also goes into my shampoo bottle. So many uses for olive oil makes it my all-in-one polisher, cleaner, and skin-conditioner. Now if only I had an oil lamp as the centerpiece of my dinner table.

Best of all, in a recession, using basic products from my pantry saves a lot of money when every nickel counts. And I’m pleased with the comforting scent of the now more vibrant hardwood floors, cabinets, and wooden furniture after the oil is absorbed.

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If you find yourself fishing for happiness, maybe it’s time to look to the obvious.  A new study performed at the University of California-San Francisco shows the omega-3 healthy fats abundant in cold-water fatty fish such as salmon, anchovies, sardines and mackerel can help prevent depression in heart patients.

The UCSF study of nearly 1,000 patients with coronary heart disease showed that nearly a quarter of individuals with the lowest levels of omega-3 fatty acids in theie bodies are suffering from depression. That’s compared to a depression rate of 13 percent among volunteer subjects with the highest levels of omega-3 fats. The findings, published onlne in the Journal of Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, confirm earlier studies showing a positive effect of high omega-3 levels and reduced depression in non-hospitalized patients with heart disease.

Other omega-3 super foods include olives, olive oil and most tree nuts. Some eggs are now fortified with omega-3 fats through putting omega-3’s in the feed. One bonus with omega-3 fats, which are the foundation of the Mediterranean diet increasingly recommended by cardiologists and other doctors, is they can help you lose weight while feeling less hungry.

The UCSF study even showed that each unit increase or decrease of omega-3 has a corresponding effect on depressive symptoms. When omega-3 consumption goes up, depression lowers. When a person consumes fewer omega-3 fats, depressive symptoms are heightened. The researchers did caution that a validation study of a more diverse, larger population is necessary. But that shouldn’t stop you from adding salmon, sardines, anchovies or mackerel to your diet, along with olive oil and other omega-3 rich food.

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IN Malaysia, an estimated 60% of the population will have some form of arthritis by the age of 60, particularly osteoarthritis. Rheumatoid arthritis (RA), on the other hand, affects a smaller percentage of our population and can affect all age groups.

Osteoarthritis (OA), the most widespread type of arthritis, is a degenerative disease of the joints. Although sometimes capable of causing acute inflammation, it is most commonly a “wear-and-tear” disease involving degeneration of joint cartilage and formation of bony spurs within various joints.
Olive phenols contain biologic response modifiers that can help reduce the inflammation associated with arthritis. – AP

Most people over 60 years of age have this affliction to some extent, requiring them to seek medical care. The main goal of treatment is to relieve pain. Glucosamine and chondroitin have been widely promoted as a treatment for OA. Laboratory studies suggest that glucosamine may stimulate production of cartilage-building proteins.

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The administrator for failed agribusiness giant Timbercorp has been given approval by the Victorian Supreme Court to apply to wind up the company’s olive and almond schemes.

KordaMentha wants to end the schemes to make it easier to sell the 13 almond projects and 11 olive groves in northern Victoria.

Spokesman Michael Smith says a number of companies have expressed interest in buying the plantations and some companies are also interested in taking over the managed investment schemes.

But Mr Smith says anyone who takes over the schemes would have to accept all the associated costs and debts.

“Rent’s due from June 30, there are very large bills like electricity to run the irrigation and I’m talking maybe $100,000 a month,” he said.

“In almonds the trees have to be pollinated by bees in August and that alone is $4 million and Timbercorp simply doesn’t have the money.

“We’re running out of time, so whatever the solution is it has to come very quickly.”

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By Kim Woods,

Harvest, which began in mid-April, is wrapping up after severe frosts last week.
Wagga Wagga, in NSW, is home to about 55,000 trees owned by investment companies and small growers.

The Riverina Olive Growers Association has 45 active members picking fruit from up to 30,000 trees.

Association secretary Vici Murdoch said unseasonal heat and rain had caused some “unbalanced” oils and that oil yields at 19 per cent were 1-2 per cent down on average.

Ms Murdoch said the Riverina harvest was targeted at the boutique market and would be unaffected by bulk quantities of oil flooding the market this year.

“Bulk prices are at $7-$8/litre but if that oil is bottled, then it’s worth $40-$60/litre,” she said.

Wagga Wagga growers and processors Neville and Chris Chapple machine-harvested fruit from 7500 trees this year, including three tonnes of table olives.

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By Julie R. Johnson,

Officials are scratching their heads as to why this year’s olive crop is the pits. “The crop looked really good early on,” said Doug Compton, assistant commissioner of the Tehama County Agriculture Department. “But then we began hearing reports of poor fruit set from olive growers.”

Across the state, Tehama County appears to be one of the least-affected areas. Compton said southern counties and even Glenn County seem to be harder hit than local orchards.

Jean Miller, Glenn County Agriculture Department assistant commissioner, said she only became aware of the fruit set problem on Thursday.

“Since that time I have been contacting many of the area olive growers, including California Olive Ranch, to gain some understanding of how bad the problem is,” she said. “What I have learned so far is that the damage has affected some areas worse than others, with some orchards not having any problems at all.”

As for the reason, while there are a number of possibilities, officials said it is too early to know if there is one single culprit.

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By Brian Lockhart,

The state’s strict new olive oil standards have left a bad taste in the mouth of one New York food importer who is arguing in court the rules are unfair, flaunt federal law and are hurting business.

Dennis Kangadis, vice president of New York-based Kangadis Food Inc., also known as The Gourmet Factory, has filed for a temporary injunction in Hartford Superior Court to prevent Department of Consumer Protection from imposing a ban on olive oil containing other kinds of oils and from seizing products that do not comply.

“The Gourmet Factory’s reputation and business relationships have already been harmed by the DCP’s adoption of the state Olive Oil Standards,” Kangadis’ attorney, Brett Boskiewicz of the Hartford-based Robinson & Cole law firm, claims in court documents.

The controversy stems from the differing olive oil standards imposed around the world.

According to court records, Connecticut last year chose to adopt criteria used by the International Olive Oil Council, a 41-member intergovernmental organization that does not include the United States.

The Gourmet Factory follows differing federal guidelines which grade olive oil based on fatty acid content, color, flavor, odor, cloudiness and sediment content.

But Connecticut lawmakers, at the urging of Norwalk-based Sclafani Importers, took a further step by preventing the sale of olive oils that — to cut production costs — are watered down with hazelnut, soy or peanut oils.

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By Rob Rogers,
Photo Frankie Frost,

Publishing heiress Nan McEvoy hopes a once-controversial 98-foot-tall windmill on her northern Marin ranch will become an inspiration for farmers and others interested in leaving fossil fuels behind.

“I know there is nothing my mother is prouder of,” said Nion McEvoy, who spoke on his mother’s behalf during a dedication ceremony at the McEvoy Ranch Wednesday morning. “I know that this project was controversial, but I hope that over time people will see it is not as terrible as they might have feared, and the positive aspects of promoting a progressive energy policy will become evident.”

McEvoy had originally planned to build a 246-foot-tall windmill, powerful enough to power and heat the dozen or so buildings and olive oil processing plant on her 552-acre ranch. After neighbors and the Marin Planning Commission balked at the windmill’s size, however, McEvoy proposed a smaller structure, with a 98-foot tower and blades 40 feet in diameter.

The new windmill will provide an average of 225 kilowatts of electricity, enough to meet the ranch’s needs. To heat the ranch, however, contractor Sustainenergy Systems of Inverness is currently installing solar thermal panels throughout the ranch’s buildings.

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