Olives101.com

First printed in La Stampa,
Adapted by Ronnie Richards,
Spring is a time of year when new products and initiatives prompt us to also examine the health of the extravirgin olive oil sector. Rankings, competitions and industry publications help to create a picture of the situation. Considerable political, media and market attention is focused on quality [...]

By Robin Pomeroy,
ROME, May 30 (Reuters) - Italy, which is pushing the European Union to accept that olive oil bottles should state the true origin of their contents, hopes to extend the idea to other globally traded food products, its farm minister said.
In an interview with Reuters on Wednesday, Paolo De Castro said he was [...]

High blood pressure has been called the silent killer. If you have high blood pressure, you may not know it unless you’ve been checked recently. Outwardly you will most likely feel fine and function normally. But at the time the condition could be working against you - all without you knowing.
Sure, there are tablets that [...]

Reporting by Julia Hayley,
Edited by Bernard Halloran,
Spain produced 34 percent more olive oil in the season just ended, or 1.11 million tonnes in total, the Agriculture Ministry said on Wednesday.
“That represents 8 percent more than the average for the last four seasons,” it said.
Olive farmers also produced 500,000 tonnes of table olives in the season [...]

About This Painting:
Jar of olives with a few on the side. This is a fun little painting. Oil on stretched canvas ready to frame.
Media: oil on canvas
Size: 5 in X 7 in (12.7 cm X 17.8 cm)
Price: $100 USD
Click here for more infos

By Bernard Carpinter,
The continuing drought in Hawke’s Bay is driving farmers to despair – but is excellent news for olive growers.
While pastoral farmers are suffering, olive growers are celebrating large quantities, top quality and increased prices for their 2007 harvest.
“The quality of the olives coming off the trees at the moment is quite simply outstanding,” [...]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EyQO0a1nisE

From the excellent blog of Solomon

Have you ever relaxed in an easy chair watching a TV show while eating from a large bag of potato chips? I’ll bet you have! Most of us have at one time or another. It’s OK occasionally, but if you eat fatty things too often… well, I guess I don’t really need to spell it [...]

Wezi Tjaronda
Windhoek
Olive farming has great potential to become one of Namibia’s most important commercial crops.
When all the olive trees growing in the areas of Swakopmund, Hochfeld, Kalahari, Omaruru, Otavi, Orange and Namibia central have reached full production, the country will produce around 74 400 litres of oil but there will still be a shortfall of [...]

Ingredients:
8 unpeeled cloves of garlic
1/2 pound of Brie or Fontina cheese, cut to cubes approximately 1 inch
1 cup of oil-cured and pitted Mediterranean or Greek black olives
1/4 cup of extra virgin olive oil
French bread
Preparation:
Heat the cooker oven to 350 degrees F. Using aluminium foil, wrap the unpeeled garlic cloves tightly. Place the cloves in the [...]

When you think of museums you tend to think of dry, dusty glass cases filled with old bones, or pottery. But that’s the Victorian image, and of course, museums worldwide have moved on. They’ve even moved on to the point where a theme, rather than an artifact, is honoured.
Olive oil is important to the Meditteranean [...]

Recipe by Abi Ulgiati,
Photography by Steve Brown,
Mediterranean flavours adorn these bite-sized morsels that taste delicious washed down with ice-cold Sangria.

Preparation Time: 10 minutes
Cooking Time: 40 minutes

Par Robert Beauchemin,
C’est une province assez peu connue au Québec, les Marches. Pourtant, on y produit de très bons vins et d’excellentes huiles d’olive depuis des centaines d’années.
C’était le projet de la famille Bellini, de Montréal, de redonner ses lettres de noblesse à un terroir ombragé par la Toscane et l’Ombrie voisine. Ce terroir, c’est [...]

It’s often been speculated on, just how did early man discover the worth of the humble olive? I mean, pick a ripe one off the tree and pop it into your mouth, then chew. Hmmm… Pretty awful, isn’t it? But the final product is delicious, so how did early man make the discovery jump?
The fact [...]

There can’t be many foods whose names have been used as a cartoon character. Olive Oyl is, of course, the girl friend of Popeye the sailor. He may seem a little bit dated these days, but it shows the awareness of olives and their oil in earlier times.
Olive oil is indeed a very versatile food [...]

A question arises whenever olive oil is obtained: what can we do with its agricultural residues, such as olive vegetable water, browse leaves, or the solid waste known as ‘alpeorujo’?
By Antonio Marín Ruiz,
A study carried out by Dr. Germán Tenorio Rivas, a member of the research group “Solids concentration and bioremediation” from the Department of [...]

Le secteur de l’huile d’olive bénéficie d’une protection douanière “suffisante” sur ses différentes importations, qui s’élève à 49%, outre la taxe sur la valeur ajoutée, qui atteint 20%, a indiqué mardi le ministre de l’Agriculture, du Développement rural et des Pêches maritimes, Mohand Laenser.
Intervenant lors de la séance des questions orales à la Chambre des [...]

We all know that too much of certain foods and drinks can cause accumulative damage to the heart over time. Fatty foods can clog the arteries and too much alcohol causes damage too. But this is a negative approach. For a change, let’s talk about the foods that actually are beneficial for the heart!
Interestingly, red [...]

Lots of jazz music will share the stage with the olive industry when the arts-and-wine community of Los Olivos celebrates its heritage Saturday, June 2.
The third annual Los Olivos Jazz and Olive Festival, which is sponsored by the Rotary Club of Los Olivos, will run from 1 to 4:30 p.m. Principal jazz, olive and wine [...]

California’s emerging olive-oil industry hears a call for quality surpassing “extra-virgin” that will stand out in a troubled, competitive market.
By Jim Downing,
Picture by Florence Low,
Will American consumers pay more for olive oil that claims to be even more pristine than extra-virgin? Will they even be able to tell the difference?
With the value of the “extra-virgin” [...]

Las Vegas is known primarily as a fun city, and so it is. But it’s not all casinos and glitz. In North Charleston Boulevard there’s an olive bar - a place where 22 varieties of olives and olive mixes can be sampled at very reasonable prices.
American people have recently embraced the humble olive as a [...]

In the future the United States can increase live and pomegranate imports from Azerbaijan, said W. Kirk Miller General Sales Manager Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) of U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).
“Azerbaijan’s having 9 [of 11] climate patterns [of the Earth] enables to export a variety of agricultural goods. There is not such a climate in [...]

Scientific research has discovered that the properties of pure extra virgin olive oil contain an ingredient that acts similarly to ibuprofen, though not so strong.
Nature journal has reported that olive oil has special anti-inflamatory properties, and that it is useful in helping to combat the effects of ailments such as arthritis.
The active ingredient is called [...]

• Biggest spring bloom in years.
• Just in time to meet growing demand.
This could be a “rebound year” in California’s olive groves.
Farmers say the growing season is off to a good start.
“We just started blooming this month and we’re excited. We haven’t seen a bloom this big in quite a few years,” says Jamie Johansson, [...]

Summer is the time for salads, and summer is coming close. Here’s a salad that is a bit different, but really great for those hot summer days.
You will need:
3 bulbs of fennel
1 orange squeezed for its juice
2 cups of mesclun salad mix
1/3 cup of olives with the pips removed
2 oranges split into individual segments
1/2 [...]