A 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 Designation of Origin covering the Messinia region of the Peloponnese, which means the name on a European label is legally meaningful in a way that "black olive" never is. Much…
Read the story →Olive oil in coffee went mainstream with Starbucks Oleato. How to make it, what it tastes like, which oil to use, and what the…
October 13, 2026Olive oil shots are trending, but a spoonful with food does the same job. What one tablespoon contains, what the studies found, and the side effects.
October 10, 2026The best olive tree fertilizer is mostly nitrogen, given in spring and in modest amounts. What the groves use, and the signs you have overdone it.
October 7, 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…
Cordoba has brought forward the spraying of 3,500 hectares of olives against bud scale after a warm winter. Why timing…
The Attica wildfires of August 2009 burned some 21,000 hectares of pine, farmland and olive groves near Marathon. What was…
A JAMA study of 1,880 older New Yorkers links a Mediterranean diet plus exercise to less Alzheimer's. What it shows…
Spain has published a 2,000 hour school diploma in olive oils and wines, tasting room included. What students learn, and…
California olive handlers will pay $28.63 a ton instead of $15.60 after the crop fell from 108,059 tons to 49,067.…
Brussels has approved 16 food promotion programs worth 62.1 million euros, olive oil among them. How the scheme works and…
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.”
