Olives101.com

By Gillian Hirst, WILD olives have been collected and eaten by humans since Neolithic times. Cultivation is not thought to have begun until 3000BC, in or around Palestine or Syria. You can trace the spread of the olive through the remains of ancient olive mills, storage jars and olive stones found throughout Greece, Italy, the [...]

With Jenny Watts, The graceful olive tree captures the exotic beauty and fabulous flavor of the Mediterranean. This tree offers evergreen beauty, fragrant spring blooms, plenty of succulent fruit, and a distinctive look for any sunny spot. Olive trees were introduced to California by the Franciscan fathers who planted the “Mission” olive. Dozens of other [...]

By A.E. Stallings Sometimes a craving comes for salt, not sweet, For fruits that you can eat Only if pickled in a vat of tears— A rich and dark and indehiscent meat Clinging tightly to the pit—on spears Of toothpicks, maybe, drowned beneath a tide Of vodka and vermouth, Rocking at the bottom of a [...]

By Claire MacDonald Olives are eaten year round, but somehow they epitomise Mediter- ranean tastes redolent of summer warmth and sun. I love both green and black olives, but I confess that black ones are my favourites and of those I like Kalamata olives best.The superb taste of their juicy flesh makes them superior to [...]

By Barbara from Winosandfoodies Pick olives from tree. Poke each olives with a metal skewer a couple of times. This helps release the bitter juices. Place olives in container, toss in a handful of rock salt and cover with water. Place a plate on top to hold olives under water. The amount of salt will [...]

Lucques olives are originally from Italy, but are now most closely associated with France and they’re unlike any other olive you’re likely to sample, free or otherwise. Grown in the Hérault region in the south of France, the Languedoc, they’re harvested in the fall and can be difficult to find depending on the time of [...]

While the primary original use of olive oil was most likely as a source of dietary fat, other uses for the oil quickly developed. For instance, the oil was also used to make soaps, as a utility oil for lamps and the lubrication of machinery. Olive oil was also used for medicinal, hygiene, and religious [...]

An interesting post from a blog… A lot of Americans don’t like olives. This is because the olives most of us are subjected to suck. I probably didn’t have a truly great olive until I was in my twenties. Now, they are almost a staple food in my diet. I’d like to share some of [...]

It’s been a staple of Mediterranean and Middle Eastern cuisine for thousands of years because, as Mark Hix finds, there’s no end to what you can do with an olive No one is sure where the olive tree originated, but it has been grown all over the Middle East and Mediterranean since time immemorial. More [...]

a simple but complete explanation about the fruit ! Common Name: Olive. Related Species: Wild Olive (Olea africana), Oleaster (O. europaea var. oleaster). Distant Affinity: American Olive (Osmanthus americana), Fragrant Olive (O. fragrans).

A staple of Mediterranean cuisines, olives are most often eaten out of hand, though cooks also use them to flavor everything from pizzas to martinis. Raw olives must be cured before they can be eaten, and the curing medium–usually lye, brine, or salt–affects their flavor and texture. So too does the olive’s degree of ripeness [...]

The Olive (Olea europaea) is a species of small tree in the family Oleaceae, native to coastal areas of the eastern Mediterranean region, from Syria and the maritime parts of Asia Minor and northern Iran at the south end of the Caspian Sea. Its use as a major agricultural product in preclassical Greece led to [...]