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| “A taste older than meat, older
than wine. A taste as old as cold water.” 8,000
YEARS OF OLIVES
The silver-grey olive tree has been cultivated in and around
the Mediterranean for 8,000 years and the trees live long:
For example, the olives of the Garden of Gethsamane are still
flourishing in the heart of Majorca today, some of these olive
trees are over 1,000 years old. Throughout history the olive
tree has been the mainstay of Mediterranean life. Century
after century, millennium after millennium, and the olive
tree has flourished where nothing else will grow. So entrenched
was the tree that bread and olives were once the diet of the
poor.
In modern times, olives and olive oil remain as popular and
applicable to Mediterranean lifestyle and cuisine. Whether
it is prepared with pasta, vegetables or other fruit, olives
area staple in the typical Mediterranean Diet. A diet which
modern science now recommend as being tremendously beneficial
to overall health and well being for humanity.
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VARIETY
IS THE SPICE OF LIFE! There are many varieties of
olives, each providing a different flavour for the consumer.
The three most well known varieties include:
Spanish Arbequines – the smallest variety of olives.
This fruit is easily identified by a medley of green or purplish-grey
colours, and a hint of rosemary in its flavour.
Manzanilla – generally categorized as a medium sized
olive, this oil-rich variety is most commonly produced by
farmers in Spain and California.
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Kalamata – likely the most
well known and most popular of all olive varieties. These
luscious fruits are nurtured in Greece, and are identifiable
by the balanced flavour of red wine vinegar (which is used
to cure them). Greece’s Kalamatas are to the olive world
what France’s Champagne grapes are to sparkling wine.
Some other well-known varieties that consumers might find
include: Spain’s Gordals del Rey(meaning, the King’s
Fat Ones); Queen’s and brine-packed Perals from Aragon;
French irregular, green Picholines; large, black, brined Tanche;
smaller reddish-brown Nyons olives; Italian dull bronze-green
Calabresses; and, the Sicilian-style small cracked olives
in brine, stuffed with red pepper.
In all, there are approximately 700 varieties of olives.
Some are favoured for oil and others used as table olives.
The range of Olive colours reflects the development stage
at which the fruit was picked. Green olives are unripe, firm
and less oily, purplely-brown olives are ideally ripened and
black olives are considered over-ripe, with a much softer
texture and mainly used for oil. A number of varieties can
be presented as wrinkled olives, which indicates they have
been sun dried.
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| It would take a man of great
vision to cultivate the olive fruits thousands of years ago.
In fact, because olives have such a bitter taste, how man decided
to cultivate this challenging fruit remains a mystery.
However they came cultivate olives, our ancient
civilizations quickly realized the key to remove all bitterness
was to treat them before curing. It is proper treatment and
curing that transform an every day olive into a juicy, satisfying
flavourful example of the exotic Mediterranean diet. Just
look in the recipe section of this website. Olives are a critical
ingredient, adding distinct and delicious flavour to any dish
– from starters to salads, delicate fish to beef, shellfish
to duck.
Intense olive flavours provide a welcome punctuation
to more bland dishes made from pasta, grains and breads. There
are hundreds of varieties of olives and, just as different
varieties of grapes are grown for different types and qualities
of wine, so olives are grown for eating, for use in cuisine
or simply for pressing into oil. And, it is not the harvester
that decides which type of olive he will grow. Rather, this
is nature’s job, as climate, soil type and other geographical
conditions impact the farmers ability to grow olives. This
is why supermarkets usually classify olives by their country
of Origin.
Popular Varieties and Preparations
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SPAIN
In Spain a specific variety of olives are
grown for culinary use. Often referenced to as "table olives,"
there are three common varieties in this category: |
Hojiblanca: The most common, recognized for its firm
meat. These olives come from Seville, as well as from the Spanish
provinces of Cordoba and Malaga. Hojiblanca’s do not exceed
seven (7) grams in weight.
Manzanilla: Considered the tastiest Spanish table olives.
Growth of Manzanilla olives is almost entirely restricted to
the province of Seville. Like Hojiblanca olives, this variety
does not exceed seven (7) grams.
Gordal: The largest of the
table olives, enjoyed on it’s own by true olive lovers.
Gordal’s are mainly grown in Spain’s Andalusia region.
This large variety can be grown to triple the weight of the
others. |
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GREECE
Greece offers many tasty olive
varieties, including the popular varieties grown in other
countries and regions. However, the long history and reputation
of Greek olives is derived from the Kalamata olive variety.
The Kalamata olive is by far the most well known and most
popular olive type in the world.
Kalamata olives are
an excellent variety for table olive use. The name is derived
from the region in Greece called Kalamata (located at the
entrance to the Messinia Valley in southwestern Peloponnese).
This variety is mainly cultivated in prefectures of Messinia
and Lakonia as well as in a significant portion of Agrinio,
a vast, wide open region of Greece.
The Kalamata fruit is collected
when mature (generally from November till Christmas) |
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Kalamata olives
are usually naturally prepared and preserved in salt water
and vinegar brine. The Kalamata is probably the most famous
of the Greek olives. It is almond shaped with a distinctive
of red-wine vinegar, or Kalamata vinegar, flavor, red wine
is used during the Kalamata curing process. Characteristics
of a good Kalamata are firmness and a meaty appearance. This
is the result of four to five months of curing. These olives
are the perfect for salads, and are used extensively in baking
– including, of course, for baking Kalamata olive breads. |
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MOROCCO
In Morocco a particular
and unique olive preparation is the Façon Grece black
olive (also called the "baked" olive).
The name implies an ancient Greek recipe abandoned for centuries.
The recipe calls for a completely manual harvesting and curing
process that requires pickers only select ripe black olives
with an oil content ranging from 8 to 12 percent. Once picked,
these olives are uniquely prepared. First they are sweetened
using water and salt, this process is rapidly repeated with
the olives continuously being rinsed in fresh pickling solutions.
After the sweetening stage, the olives are left to dry in
wooden crates for three days. Finally, once perfectly dried,
the olives are placed in large salt drums. Each drum is rolled
rigorously (clockwise) once a month. This final salting process
continues for three months.
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At the end of
the treatment, the olives will have absorbed the salt and
will appear soft and shiny. This olive variety provides a
very particular and unmistakable flavour to the palate. |
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