About Olive
The Olive
is the fruit of the Olive tree (Olea europaea) and
is a major component of the agriculture and
gastronomy along the Mediterranean both in Europe
and North Africa, as well as in the Middle East.
Food, cooking medium, lamp fuel,
preservative, medicine, cure, laxative, aphrodisiac,
cosmetic, unguent, magic potion ingredient and
religious unction - since time immemorial, olives
have been used for all these purposes, especially
amongst Mediterranean cultures: The Bible, the Torah
and the Koran are all full of references to the
olive.
It is thought that cultivation of
the native wild tree began somewhere in the Near
East some 6000 years ago. Olive cultivation and oil
extraction was brought to Iberia by the Phoenicians
around 1050 BCE, and again by the Greeks between
600-700 BCE, but it was undoubtedly the Romans who
would turn Iberian oil into a veritable industry,
though it seems that the Iberian tribes looked on
this new and pungent oil with some suspicion,
preferring their good old lard. The importance of
Iberian oil to the Empire was huge. Spanish oil
amphorae have been found in all Roman provinces,
though most was of course was destined to Rome
itself. Mount Testaccio in the city is a testament
to the size of the trade. This artificial hill is
made up of 40 million amphorae discarded during the
first 250 years of the Common Era, most of which are
from the Iberian Peninsula. Hadrian even had a coin
struck bearing the picture of an olive branch and
the inscription "Hispania".
While the fall of the Roman Empire led to the
decline of olive production in the rest of Europe,
Southern Spain was to see an increase in cultivation
with the arrival of the Arabs, who brought with them
new varieties and production techniques.
The two distinct historical
origins of olive production in Iberia - Roman and
Arabic - are also the sources of the two names for
olive in Spanish: oliva and aceituna: the former is
from the Latin oleum (from the Greek elaia) and also
gives us olivo [olive tree], while the latter is
from the Arabic al-zait (from the Aramaic zatya),
meaning 'olive juice', which also gives us the
Spanish words aceite [oil], and acebuche [wild olive
tree]. The preferred term for the fruit is probably
aceituna. Olive oil is called aceite de oliva (half
Latin, half Arabic) in Spanish, to distinguish it
from the petroleum engine lubricant, but oli
suffices in Catalonia.
The different language influences and the much lower
influence of Arabic on the other Peninsular and
neighbouring languages can be seen in this
(incomplete) table.
English |
Olive(s) |
Oil |
Olive Tree |
Latin |
Olea |
Oleum |
|
Arabic |
Aotoun, Azeituna |
Al-zeit |
|
Spanish |
Aceituna(s), Oliva(s) |
Aceite de Oliva |
Olivo, Acebucho |
Basque |
Oliba(s) |
Olibolioa |
|
Catalan |
Oliva (es) |
Oli |
Olivera |
Galician |
|
Azeite |
|
Portuguese (Thanks to Nuno
Vilaça) |
Azeitona(s)
|
Azeite |
Oliveira(s)
|
French |
Olive(s) |
Huile d'olive |
Olivier |
With the culmination of the
Reconquista and the rise of Catholic fundamentalism
at the time of the Catholic Monarchs, pork came to
be seen as a sure sign of faith in a land of half-
and falsely-converted Moriscos and Jews, and so was
the dominant use of lard {manteca} in detriment to
olive oil, which began to be associated with plebes,
peasants and people with suspicious blood lineages.
As the Galician writer and gastronome, Julio Cambra
put it, 'Spanish cooking overflows with garlic and
religious prejudices".
Olive oil did not, however, lose its reputation as
an efficacious health tonic. In the south and along
the coast, olive oil continued as the dominant fat,
yet it wasn't until the late 19th century that
Spanish cookery writers, notably Angel Muro in 'El
Practicón', began to extol its virtues over lard.
In the 1960's, the Spanish State, hungry for
dollars, started to export high-price olive oil to
the USA in exchange for cheap American soya bean
oil. State propaganda managed to convince much of
the population of the culinary and dietary
superiority of soya, no doubt aided by olive oil's
backward image of rural poverty in counterpoint to
the shining American utopia, projected by soya oil
adverts: olives, oil and bread had been survival
rations for many Andalusian peasants in the years of
hunger following the Civil War. Consequently,
millions of hectares of ancient olive groves were
ripped up and replaced by water-guzzling soya bean,
and later sunflower crops. Many families simply
stopped using olive oil as a cooking fat.
By the late seventies, production had begun to
recover, thanks to mounting medical and dietary
evidence of its relative benefits, and rising
cultural pride in such a talisman of the
Mediterranean, though even now the industry has yet
to recover from the seventies setback, when Italian
producers were able to take advantage of Spain's
weakness and win foreign markets. To this day, Spain
exports millions of tons of olive oil to Italy,
where a label in Italian is stuck on a nice bottle,
which is then re-exported to the North for twice the
price. However, the situation is rapidly changing:
production techniques have been significantly
improved and the best regions are all now protected
by the 'Denominación de Origen' system. Spanish oil
now enjoys a worldwide reputation for quality.
Spain is by some way the country
with the highest number of olive trees (more than
300 million), and is nowadays the world's leading
olive and olive oil producer and exporter. Of the
2.1 million hectares (5.19 million acres) of olive
groves, 92% are dedicated to olive oil production.
The average annual production varies due to the
cyclical nature of the harvest, but typically runs
between 600,000 and 1,000,000 metric tons, only 20%
of which is exported. About 80% of the crop is
concentrated in Andalusia, the biggest olive growing
area on the planet.

Olive plantations in Jaen, home
to 70% of Spanish production.
In Andalusia, the most important
olive oil producing areas are in the province of
Jaén, where the main olive type is Picual, and other
authorised varieties include Verdala, Real, and
Manzanilla de Jaén, and in the province of Córdoba,
where the authorised DO olive varieties include
Picuda (a.k.a. Carrasqueña de Córdoba), Picual,
Lechín, Chorrío, Pajarero, and Hojiblanco. DO
certified Andaluz olive oils tend to be full bodied
and tasty; class "A" oils have a maximum acidity of
0.4%, while class "B" oils have up to 1% acidity.
Catalonia also produces olive oil, which tends to be
on the lighter side. The principal cultivation and
production areas are Les Garrigues, in the province
of Lleida, and Siurana, very nearby, in the province
of Tarragona, where the Arbequina variety is the
main olive grown, but where other DO authorised
varieties include Real [Royal], Verdiel and Morrut
olives.
Olive trees are slow growing, traditionally bearing
fruit after fifteen years, though modern production
techniques have brought maturity down to five (hence
the lag in time it took to recover from the
1960-70's uprooting of the groves). A tree is
thought to reach maximum productivity after 40
years, and after 140 begins to decline, though
thousand-year-old trees can and do still bear rich
loads. Olive tree age is often exaggerated though Lo
Parot in Horta de Sant Joan in Tarragona is
certainly between 1,000-1,500 years old. It would
have been planted during Visigoth or Arab times.
Olives are gathered from late
November to the end of March, depending on the area
and the year's weather. Harvesting is done by hand,
or with a stick to shake the fruit onto tarpaulins
arranged around the tree (it is sometimes done with
a mechanical tree shaker, though this can damage a
tree).
Between four and eleven kilos of olives are needed
to make one kilo of oil. This is done by grinding
the olives whole and then pressing the resultant
mulch or 'pomice'. Each olive releases a few
droplets of oil. This mix of pulp, stone, water and
oil is then spun centrifugally, bringing to the
surface aceite flor, which is then further treated
by decanting and filtering to rid it of water and
impurities.
Olive oil should be consumed within 12 months of
bottling and can begin to go rancid after 15 months.
Store in a dry place out of sunlight.
Spanish olive oil comes in four distinct classes,
defined by national health regulations:
(1) Aceite de Oliva Virgen [Virgin Olive Oil], a
completely natural product. Within the Virgin grade,
there are 3 recognized quality levels:
-
Extra (the most flavoursome,
not exceeding 1% acidity);
-
Corriente [Average] (not
exceeding 3.3% acidity); and
-
Lampante [Very Strong] (above
3.3% acidity).
(2) Aceite de Oliva Refinado
[Refined Olive Oil], obtained by refining lampante
virgin oil; it is perfectly acceptable, but does not
have the full taste of virgin olive oil. Ideal for
cooking
(3) Aceite de Oliva [Regular Olive Oil], a blend of
both refined and virgin olive oil.
(4) Aceite de Orujo/Marc/Pomace [Pomace Oil], made
from olive oil pressings {pomace/marc/orujo}; the
least expensive type, with no real taste. Don't
bother buying.
The best by far is virgin extra, which is first
press oil with all of its vitamins still intact. In
Spain, it must have a minimum acidity of 0.2 and a
maximum of 1.0. The acidity gauge is a measure of
the content of free fatty acids. 1 grade of this
acid equals 1 gram of oleic acid per 100 grams of
oil. The shorter the time the oil spends between
harvesting and pressing, the lower the acidity,
though within the accepted range a higher acidity is
by no means a sign of an inferior oil. It's just a
question of taste. Virgin and Virgin Corriente are
poorer oils suitable for cooking with a higher
acidic content (no more than 2º and 3.3º,
respectively). Lamparte (more than 3.3º) is
generally only used for industrial deep-frying
purposes.
About Olive Cultivation
Cultivation of the olive is an important part of
the Mediterranean economy. Olive cultivation has
been moving westward over the last three millennia,
and today Spain is the world's largest producer of
olives (36%) followed by Italy (25%)[7] and Greece
(18%), and world production has crossed 2.5 mn
tons.
The olive has also been planted in other regions
such as Chile and Australia, but the primary
production is almost entirely around the
Mediterranean.
Olive Tree Description
Growth Habits: The olive is an evergreen tree
growing to 50 ft. in height with a spread of about
30 ft. The tree can be kept to about 20 ft. with
regular pruning. The graceful, billowing appearance
of the olive tree can be rather attractive. In an
all-green garden its grayish foliage serves as an
interesting accent. The attractive, gnarled
branching pattern is also quite distinctive. Olives
are long-lived with a life expectancy of 500 years.
The trees are also tenacious, easily sprouting back
even when chopped to the ground.
Foliage: The olive's feather-shaped leaves grow
opposite one another. Their skin is rich in tannin,
giving the mature leaf its gray-green appearance.
The leaves are replaced every two or three years,
leaf-fall usually occurring at the same time new
growth appears in the spring.
Flowers: The small, fragrant, cream-colored olive
flowers are largely hidden by the evergreen leaves
and grow on a long stem arising from the leaf axils.
The olive produces two kinds of flowers: a perfect
flower containing both male and female parts, and a
staminate flower with stamens only. The flowers are
largely wind pollinated with most olive varieties
being self-pollinating, although fruit set is
usually improved by cross pollination with other
varieties. There are self-incompatible varieties
that do not set fruit without other varieties
nearby, and there are varieties that are
incompatible with certain others. Incompatibility
can also occur for environmental reasons such as
high temperatures.
Fruit: The olive fruit is a green drupe, becoming
generally blackish-purple when fully ripe. A few
varieties are green when ripe and some turn a shade
of copper brown. The cultivars vary considerably in
size, shape, oil-content and flavor. The shapes
range from almost round to oval or elongated with
pointed ends. Raw olives contain an alkaloid that
makes them bitter and unpalatable. A few varieties
are sweet enough to be eaten after sun drying.
Thinning the crop will give larger fruit size. This
should be done as soon as possible after fruit set.
Thin until remaining fruit average about 2 or 3 per
foot of twig. The trees reach bearing age in about 4
years.
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