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Mediterranean Olives
| Article
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20703 |
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Section : |
LIFE
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| Issue
Date : |
9 / 1992 |
1,384 Words |
| Author
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Kay Shaw Nelson
Food and travel writer Kay Shaw Nelson has written for
numerous magazines and newspapers, including Gourmet, House
and Garden, Washingtonian, and the New York Times. The author
of thirteen cookbooks, she most recently published A Bonnie
Scottish Cookbook. |
It is impossible to think of the Mediterranean countryside without gnarled olive trees or of the local cuisines without the distinctive flavor of the olive. The region is still the main source of olives and olive oil.
Ancient Past
Of all the marvelous Mediterranean foods, the oldest and the most important, versatile, and reversed is the olive. Early inhabitants could not have survived without the olive tree, called the "best" or "king" of trees, as its produce was richer than that of any other. The golden oil has been used for cooking and as a seasoning, salad dressing, lamp fuel, sacred ointment, beauty aid, lubricant, and soap ingredient. Ancients ascribed to olive oil many curative powers as well. Olives marinated with a wide range of illnesses: olive oil with lavender to relieve headaches and olive oil with mint to ease tiredness, for example.
The olive is so ancient that its past cannot be documented. Possibly the wild olive tree originated in Asia Minor, and peoples in the eastern Mediterranean region learned to cultivate it five or six thousand years ago. Early records reveal that by 3000 B.C. the fruit was important in the whole of the Fertile Crescent, from Egypt to the Sumerian empire.
The Egyptians credited Isis, wife of Osiris, their supreme god, with teaching people how to cultivate and use the olive tree over six thousand years ago. According to Greek mythology, Athens was named for Athena, goddess of wisdom and war, after the olive tree that she created by striking the earth with her spear was judged more beneficial to humanity than Poseidon's horse, the symbol of war. The ancient olive trees, used the fruit in curious dishes. Olives and boiled cabbage were seasoned with an herbed olive oil and wine dressing. One specialty, described by the Roman writer Columella, combined olives with "minced chives, rue, parsley, and mint, mixed with pepper, vinegar, and a little honey or mead, sprinkled with green olive oil, and covered with a bunch of green parsley."
Growing The Olive
The small round-to-oval fruit is produced by a semitropical evergreen tree, Olea europea, which has yellow flowers and leathery, lance-shaped leaves that are dark green above and silvery on the underside. The beauty of the olive tree has been extolled by poets and writers through the ages. The trees are able to withstand hot, dry summers, and
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