According to Omiros, the olive oil or the “liquid gold”, during ancient times it was not merely a food, but rather it represented health, strength, power and it was regarded as a medicine, a source of magic and admiration as well. Specifically, in ancient Greece, athletes salved it all over their bodies, as they believed it would give them strength and luck. Moreover, fighters put olive oil in nobles’ heads and purred drops of it on dead peoples’ bones, as it was an emblem of consecration and purity.
Olive oil cultivation is lost deep-down in the centuries.
Fossils of olives have been found in Livorno in Italy, that date 20 million years back, whereas olive cultivation is estimated to have begun in the wider Mediterranean basin almost 7000 years ago. As far as Greece is concerned, the first testimonies for the olive’s cultivation in the Greek area, according to archeological findings, commenced in Crete, 3500 years ago.
Factors that influence the oil:
- Rich and aromatic, the olive oil can be produced only by green olives.
- Regarding color, taste and perfume, they vary and depend on the above factors:
- The olive’s variety.
- The location and the kind of terrain, where it is cultivated.
- The environmental and climate conditions under which the olive is being cultivated and developed.
- The maturity of the olive.
- The season and the way the olive is being harvested.
- The time in between the harvest of the olive and the production of oil.
- The production manners of the oil.
- The techniques of storing, the packaging of the oil, as well as the way the olives are being transported to oil presses.
SEVERAL TYPES :
Extra virgin olive oil:
Extra virgin olive oil: the best quality olive oil. It has an exquisite color, perfume and taste, whereas his acidity does not outreach 1%.
Virgin olive oil: it differentiates from the extra virgin, not only in acidity, which nevertheless does not outreach 2%, but in taste as well.
Disadvantageous virgin olive oil: oil of medium quality and taste, with an acidity which outreached 2%.
Mixture of olive oil with refined and virgin olive oils: it has a pleasant taste and smell, bright green-yellow color, and its acidity does not overreach 1%
Ultra-refined olive oil:
an almost tasteless oil with an acidity of 0,3% maximum.
Pomace oil: it tastes smooth, and derives from the mixture of refined pomace oil with and virgin olive oil.
Green olive oil: green olive oil is the initial oil that comes out from olive. During mid-October until its end, always depending on the climate conditions of the area and the year, the most fresh and strong olives, immature and green, which have neither been rucked or hit so as to fall from the tree, are being collected so as to give their juice, which is immediately analyzed so as to have its quality characteristics confirmed. This, though, it does not mean that all primary oils are green olive oils. The oil of the first, immature fruit, of the first crop, is very special and according to the International Olive Oil Council, its basic evaluation criteria focus on three of its main aspects: fruity, bitter and spicy. In other words, this is about oil with an intense taste of olive and perfume, which constitute it unique and special.
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OLIVE AND HEALTH
The history of olive dates back centuries, prior to peoples’ organized way of life. This conclusion is being reached by the use of several sources. De Candole, in his study “Origin des plantes cultivees”, based both on the existence of self-sown wild olive vegetation and on ancient writers’ texts and excavations’ findings, maintains that the cultivation of olive was well known 4000 years ago and that the tree of olive derives from Minor Asia’s coasts. Anagnostopoulos (1951), based on the findings of Knossos Palace’s excavations, has supported that the olive’s country is Crete. This hypothesis is also enhanced by the fact that the olive’s name is Greek, and that it has been preserved as such in all languages.
Nowadays, in the whole glob, there are approximately 800 million olive trees, 95% of which are cultivated in the Mediterranean basin, which has exquisite terrain and climate conditions for the development of olive. In Greece, olive is a wide-spread cultivation. The expansion of olive cultivation is bigger than that of any other tree. Its area conceives the 15% of the cultivated rural land and the 75% of the tree cultivations.
Dimitra Profitou-Athanasiasou, Professor of Agriculture, Aristoteleion University of Thessaloniki