Should you swap butter or margarine for olive oil? Mostly yes — but let's be honest about what each of the three everyday fats actually is, and where each one still wins.
Read the story →A cold hardy olive tree still has limits. How cold olives can really go, which varieties hold up best, what zones work and how…
October 28, 2026Are olive trees toxic to cats or dogs? The tree is not a known pet poison, but pits, fallen fruit, garden chemicals and pollen can be. What to watch for.
October 25, 2026Types of olive trees compared for home growers: size, cold tolerance, self-fertility and fruit use for Arbequina, Mission, Koroneiki and six more.
October 22, 2026Straight off the tree, an olive is inedible — bitter enough to make you wince. Curing is how we fix that, and you can do it at home…
Kalamata are ripened and brine-cured. Tinned black olives are picked green and oxidised. Why one tastes of wine and the other of almost nothing.
An olive that is delicious from the jar can wreck a dish, because heat does three things to it: it drives out salt, it softens the flesh, and…
In a village in Crete stands an olive tree up to 4,000 years old — still making olives. A timeline of everything it has outlived, and the one…
Tasting olive oil properly takes a small glass, your own hand and about a minute. Here is the professional method…
How a Sicilian olive becomes extra virgin oil — from the September picking to the cold-pressed juice — and why…
L'Iran est discrètement devenu un vrai producteur d'olives — arbres sauvages anciens, élan moderne de plantation, et un goût national…
Australia's real olive-oil advantage isn't sunshine — it's the calendar. Harvested when the northern hemisphere's oil is a year old,…
By Christine Delsol, "Which one is the best?" the man asks, tiny plastic cup in hand, as he ponders six…
The olive fruit fly ruins backyard crops by laying its eggs inside the fruit. Here is how the pest works…
Its beauty, its origins, its history: the varieties, the fields, the pictures.
“What does lavender have to do with olives? Well, I’m glad you asked. I just love both, and to me they’re the perfect match.”
