Olive harvesting device a boon to farmers – or is it?
By Maher Zeineddine,
CHOUF: A new harvesting tool on the market is making the lives of Lebanese olive farmers much easier amid a record-breaking harvest season. While most farmers continue to harvest their olive crops in the traditional fashion – either by climbing a ladder and picking the olives off one by one, or by shaking the harvest from the branches of trees – some families have chosen to purchase a mifrat, which can do the work of four harvesters.
The mifrat, invented in Italy, consists of a long pole with multiple pincers and a collection cylinder. The pincers sever the olives from tree branches and the cylinder catches them as they fall.
Workers have been able to harvest up to 80 kilograms of olives a day using the device, a vast increase over what can be done with two hands.
Posted in Middle East by: Olives101
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East Coast Olive Oil moves west to Rome
Celebration marks building’s completion
By Tory N. Parrish,
ROME — East Coast Olive Oil’s new facility in Rome should be fully operational by summer, Chief Executive Officer Steve Mandia said.
The company held a ceremony Wednesday to celebrate the completion of its new 180,000-square-foot building at Griffiss Business & Technology Park.
“The importance is we’ve outgrown our facility here in Utica and it’s really a great opportunity for us to build a brand new facility from the ground up,” Mandia said. “And it really is needed to help maintain our current business, but also, without it, we’d be unable to grow.”
Founded in 1991, East Coast Olive Oil imports bulk olive oil and packages 65,000 metric tons of olive oil and vegetable oils annually. The company, which employs 120 people, announced in May that it planned to relocate to Rome, after outgrowing its 60,000-square-foot facility on Wurz Avenue in Utica.
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Posted in Business, North America, Olive Oil by: Olives101
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Do green and black olives grow on the same trees?
Green olives are picked before they are ripe, and black olives when they are ripe. Black olives are on the tree longer than green ones.
The green olive has a firmer texture than the black olive. Green olives must be stored in brine so they will not taste bitter.
According to the California Rare Fruit Growers, olive seeds more than 8,000 years old have been found in Spain. Olives were cultivated in Crete and Syria before the Greeks and Romans grew them. In the 1700s, olive growing came to California, where five varieties (Manzanillo, Sevillano, Mission, Ascolano and Barouni) currently are grown. In addition to the olive production in California, some olives are grown in the Phoenix area.
The olive tree is an evergreen that can grow to 50 feet. Trees may live to be 500 years old. Like the peach, the olive is a drupe, a fruit with a single large stone.
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Posted in General Infos by: Olives101
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America’s appetite for olive oil ripens
Locals finally told him that Mission olives should be harvested ripe, not green, for oil.
By Kristin Ohlson,
OROVILLE, CALIF. – From his tasting room on the hilly outskirts of Oroville, Calif., Jamie Johannson can hear the workers picking his olives. Even when they are too far away for him to hear their voices, he can still detect the wind-chime-like clamor of them at work.
“There’s a musical sound when they move their metal ladders,” says Mr. Johannson, founder of Lodestar Farms. Visitors make their way to Johannson’s grove throughout the year, drawn by the nation’s growing fascination with small farms in general and olive oil in particular. While olive oil has been a staple in other countries for eons – used to cook and flavor food, fuel lamps, and anoint the body – Americans’ interest is more recent. Travel to the Mediterranean and a resulting enthusiasm for its cuisine created a buzz for olive oil in the last few decades. Food celebrities proclaimed the virtues of EVO – extra-virgin olive oil, the finest, most flavorful oil produced entirely by physical means (now in centrifuges, not presses), without the use of chemicals or excess heat.
Consumption of olive oil in the United States has risen 272 percent since 1991, according to the International Olive Oil Council. By 2002, Americans were consuming a little over a half liter (about a pint) each year – about what the average Greek uses in a week.
Posted in North America, Olive Oil by: Olives101
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Olive oil has a fascinating past; healthy, delicious present
By Evie Barkin,
The story of olives and olive oil is complex. The origin of olive oil is a mystery, but cultivated olives date back more than 6,000 years. Described as liquid gold by Homer, in ancient Greece, athletes rubbed it on their bodies. Olive oil has been more than just food to peoples of the Mediterranean. It has been medicinal, magical and a source of wealth and power.
The olive branch known as a sign of peace, and crowns of olive branches were worn by victorious athletes in the Olympic games. The oil was used to anoint powerful figures. There are many references in the Bible to olive oil. There was belief that olive oil gave strength and youth, and it was used for both medicine and cosmetics.
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