The olive tree probably originated in the Middle East, where its fruits have been used since prehistoric times. Along with the vine, the olive tree was one of the first plants to be cultivated and the practice spread from Central Persia and Mesopotamia to Egypt and Phoenicia and then to Greece. The Minoan Greeks of Crete were the first to engage in the full-scale cultivation of th...e olive, and from 2000 BC olives played a primary role in the island’s economy.
The ancient Greek philosophers and physicians soon discovered the curative properties of olive oil. This knowledge is being “rediscovered” today as modern scientists seek to determine why the Mediterranean Diet is so healthy.
There is an enormous range of tastes and flavours of olive oil, and much like wine, this depends on its place of origin, and whether the oil has been produced by traditional or mechanised means.
Although it would be wrong to assume that all the oils from one area taste the same, Greek oils have generally been described as being consistently herbaceous in character, varying from fresh and grassy to dry and hay-like depending on the growing conditions and extraction method. The degree of pepperiness varies form oil to oil.
some other facts!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
- First olive press in the world was found on the island of Crete around 1600 B.C.
- Homer in the "Odyssey" refers to olive oil as "liquid gold"
- Solon's Olive protection Law during the Athenian democracy (600 B.C.), in the first written legislation of the world, prohibited the cutting down of olive trees
- Olympic games winners in ancient Greece were crowned with olive branches
- Greek Ortho...dox rituals such as christenings & blessings use olive oil
- In Genesis, a dove released from the Ark by Noah, returned with an olive branch to show that the flood had receded.
- Hercules was protected by wearing a wreath of olive leaves upon his head- For bravery in battle, Roman soldiers were rewarded with crowns of olive
- Nobel prize winner Greek poet Odysseas Elytis wrote "Greece is a vine, an olive tree and a boat"
- Thomas Jefferson wrote: "The olive tree is surely the richest gift of Heaven"
- Aldous Huxley wrote: "…I like them all, but especially the olive. For what it symbolizes, first of all, peace with its leaves and joy with its golden oil."
- Federico Garcia Lorca wrote: "Angels with long braids and hearts of olive oil."
- Lawrence Durrell wrote in Prospero's Cell, "The entire Mediterranean seems to rise out of the sour, pungent taste of black olives between the teeth. A taste older than meat or wine, a taste as old as cold water. Only the sea itself seems as ancient a part of the region as the olive and its oil, that like no other products of nature, have shaped civilizations from remotest antiquity to the present
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