Heritage of olives

Almost any grocery store you go into these days has an olive bar right next to the salad bar. Who knew there were so many types, colors and flavors of olives? When I was growing up the only olive I knew about was green with a pimento stuffed into it. I always took that out.

Following is an excerpt from Whole Foods Market’s produce guide (http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/products/specialty/olives.html) that gives a brief overview to this versatile fruit.

“The olive (Olea europea) is an ancient fruit worthy of the lore and acclaim that surrounds it. Marvelously versatile, it is enjoyed as a condiment, served as an appetizer, ground into spreads, tossed into salads, simmered with stews and sauces and, of course, popped into Martinis. It yields heart-healthy olive oil and satisfies all five tastes-sweet, sour, salty, bitter and pungent. Its traditional reputation as a health food is being borne out by modern science, as studies on the olive-consuming Mediterranean peoples have shown.”

The California Olive Industry web site gives us a brief history of the olive:

http://www.calolive.org/foodservice/heritage.html

A History as Old as Western Civilization

The wild olive (oleaster) grows in most countries of the Mediterranean, even in Southeast Asia and other areas. It is an unimpressive straggly plant, with little resemblance to the olive tree, Olea europaea, which may have been first cultivated as early as five thousand years ago in Crete and Syria.

New World Transplant

The olive tree flourished in Spain, Tunisia, Morocco and Mediterranean countries for thousands of years, but it was not until the mid-sixteenth century that there is a record of cuttings being carried to Peru by the Spaniards. In the 1700s Franciscan monks brought the olive to Mexico and then north to California by way of the missions. The first cuttings were planted in 1769 at the San Diego Mission. However, it was not until the late 1800s that commercial cultivation began in warm, sunny valleys of Central and Northern California.

© Copyright 2006 California Olive Industry. All Rights Reserved.”