In Focus: The Salonenque Olive
The Salonenque is a quiet Provençal aristocrat, grown around Salon-de-Provence and the Alpilles. You may have met it without knowing: it is the variety behind the celebrated olives cassées de la Vallée des Baux, the green olives cracked open by hand and cured fresh — a regional specialty with its own protected status.
The variety
Salonenque is a dual-purpose Provençal olive grown chiefly in the Bouches-du-Rhône, within the orbit of the Vallée des Baux-de-Provence PDO. The fruit is medium-large and elongated, used both for the table and for a soft, elegant oil. As a table olive its signature preparation is the olive cassée: picked young and green, each olive is split or cracked to speed curing, then steeped in brine, often with fennel, and eaten while still fresh and crisp. The flavour is mild, sweet and nutty, with a delicacy that suits the Provençal table.
The oil and the table
Pressed for oil, Salonenque gives a gentle, low-bitterness extra virgin with almond and ripe-fruit notes — rounder and softer than the peppery oils of central Italy, and typical of the mellow Provençal style. It is often blended with other local varieties such as Aglandau and Grossane in the Vallée des Baux oils. But it is the broken green table olive that remains its calling card: a fresh, seasonal treat, best eaten within weeks of curing rather than kept long in the jar. Provence eats this olive young, and so should you.
True olives cassées are a fresh, short-season product — they are not built to sit on a shelf for a year, and the best are sold loose and eaten soon. If you find them, buy a small amount and enjoy them quickly, fennel and all. For the oil, look for a Vallée des Baux-de-Provence PDO bottle and treat its softness as the regional signature, not a weakness.
From French AOP records and Provençal curing tradition.