Olives101.com

By Gillian Hirst, I THINK at last count I had 10 different styles of olives in my pantry. They are the perfect snack food. We enjoy them with wine and cheese, add them to salads, roast them with vegetables and use them in pastas. I have a beautiful (if I do say so myself) recipe [...]

By A. Craig Copetas, Beneath the precious fruit of an olive tree planted in 1776 outside the mountain hamlet of Sambuca di Sicilia, Giovanni Di Bennardo mops summer dust from his brow and explains how he’ll make it to America. “I will only go when I’m a rich man,” said the 29-year-old manager of Di [...]

The olive is possibly the oldest cultivated tree in the world. It is believed that people in the Mediterranean region were cultivating olive trees before written language was properly developed. Certainly the ancient Egyptians had olive groves. From at least the time of Ramses II (1179 – 1165 BC),olive oil from the many groves aorund [...]

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 [...]

People living in the Mediterranean area who use olive oil as their main source of fat have the world’s lowest mortality rate due to cardio-vascular illness. Finland and the United States, where people consume the highest amounts of saturated fat, have the highest. Olive oil contains more monounsaturated fatty acids than any other fat or [...]

By Kathy Saunders, Wading through the olive oil options at grocery stores these days is as confusing as navigating a maze of olive trees. Olive oils, especially extra-virgin olive oil, became extra popular when doctors started touting the benefits of their monounsaturated fat. And let’s not forget that television personality Rachael Ray used the term [...]

By Polly Campbell, Photos by Michael E. Keating, Here’s what you need to know to pick the best bottle for you Have you noticed how the olive oil section is bulging at the seams at your local market? On your weekly shopping trip, you can buy oil from around the world, in a wide range [...]

Deep in Andalucian olive country, expert olive oil producers perform their age-old alchemy, turning black fruit into gold. by Arpi Shively, The charmed life of a ripe Nuñez de Prado olive begins on a crisp late November morning above the town of Baena in Cordoba province, in the heart of Andalucian olive country. Over the [...]

By Christopher Markuns, Cooking oil used to be so simple. There was vegetable and there was olive. Today, simplicity has been supplanted by overwhelming options that can trigger almost comedic dilemmas. Dressing a salad? Will it be almond oil or walnut? Grapeseed is good. So is hazelnut. And if frying is on the menu, canola [...]

If you’re in the market for olive oils, you’re likely to be dazzled by dozens of drizzlers. But which ones are the best to buy? CBS 2′s Consumer Reporter Kirstin Cole with the help of Good Housekeeping magazine performed a blind taste test of 12 brands to find the best. A common question asked with [...]

By Elyse Weidner, One product that can soften your cuticles, condition your hair, moisturize your body, diminish sun damage to your skin and serve as a shaving product is sitting in your kitchen. Extra virgin olive oil, rich in vitamins and antioxidants, helps soften skin without leaving behind clogged pores, extra grease or an overwhelming [...]

By Gholam Rahman, Question: What’s the difference between regular and extra-virgin olive oil? If you’re not a gourmet cook, do you really need the extra-virgin kind? Answer: Extra-virgin olive oil is unique among oils in that it comes directly from ripe fruits of the olive tree. The fruits are milled and pressed by modern hydraulic [...]

By Karen Fernau, Olives are so much more than a martini garnish. They add easy, intense flavor to pasta dishes, baked bread, as toppings for seafood and in salads. Which olives taste best is personal. Flavors range from tangy, winey and fruity to spicy and tart. Olives come packed with fat, but the “good” monounsaturated [...]

There have been black tomatoes, square melons and elephant garlic. Now shoppers will be able to pick up olives the size of hen’s eggs. The giant Bella di Cerignola, weighing up to three times a standard olive but with stones that are disproportionately small, will need something larger than a cocktail stick to spear and [...]

An initiative has been started by the Kuşadası Association of Tourist Guides (KURED), with the support of the Turkish Tourist Guides Federation (TUREF), to make an old olive oil factory located in the Ortaklar neighborhood of Aydın’s Germencik province into a museum. The museum will be the second one in its field in Turkey after [...]