No Castelvetrano? Use Nocellara, the same olive under its botanical name. A swap table for Kalamata, Cerignola, Nicoise and Picholine.
Read the story →Indoor olive tree care comes down to strong light, a cool winter rest and careful watering. How to keep one thriving inside, and why…
September 22, 2026A true Kalamata is a specific Greek cultivar, almond-shaped, deep purple-black, split by hand or knife and cured in brine, often finished with red wine vinegar. It carries a Protected…
September 15, 2026Most olive allergies are to the pollen, not the fruit or oil. Symptoms of all 3, whether you can still eat olives, and which tests to ask a doctor about.
September 11, 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…
Headlines love the idea of olives watered with seawater. The reality is more interesting: the olive is one of the…
The International Olive Council in Madrid quietly writes the rules that decide what 'extra virgin' means. Here is what the…
Who actually handles an olive between the tree and your table? A plain-language map of the olive trade — growers,…
A famous ‘Italian’ olive oil brand changing hands between multinationals is a useful reminder: the name on the bottle and…
Olive oil has soothed Mediterranean skin for millennia, and the cosmetics industry quietly leans on it still — especially one…
At Kirkpinar in Edirne, oil-drenched wrestlers have grappled for over six centuries. It is Turkey's national sport, a UNESCO heritage,…
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.”
