The recent summer time is over, the times are getting shorter, and the autumn solar is shining on ripe olives. It’s olive harvest season in Italy, Greece and Spain, and among the finest instances to journey for a sustainable trip. The olive harvest is a superb alternative to pattern native produce, help farmers’ cooperatives, and join with locals. Right here we spotlight particular olive varieties and eco-friendly lodging in Italy and on the Canary Islands. By the way in which, I attempt to pickle olives myself yearly – it’s really simple – however tougher than you suppose!
Enjoyable details concerning the olive
- The olive is botanically a fruit, not a vegetable.
- Inexperienced and black olives develop on the identical tree – the black olives simply dangle on longer.
- Olives are sometimes harvested in October. Many farmers watch for the primary rain to fall.
- The oldest olive tree on the earth isn’t identified. There are a number of contenders in Greece and Palestine, and the bushes are mentioned to be between 2,000 and 5,000 years previous (as you may see, the data may be very imprecise.) One factor is for certain: there are nonetheless bushes in whose shade even the Romans sat!
Olio Olivia Olive harvest competition in Italy
Italy is taken into account the nation with the vastest number of olives. There are mentioned to be over 500 completely different varieties, and every area has its personal specialties. Now, at harvest time, you may see the recent fruits on the markets everywhere in the nation, the oil presses are in full operation, and you’ll style recent olives oil and, in fact, pickled olives in lots of locations.
In Imperia, a small coastal city in Liguria, the Olio Olivia Festival is happening once more this yr. Proper on the port you will see that a protracted promenade with stalls the place you may style and purchase native olive merchandise. In fact, there are additionally different merchandise corresponding to recent bread and cheese – and music. As well as, quite a few oil presses open their doorways for a tour in the course of the occasion. This offers you an opportunity to look behind the scenes and be taught extra concerning the fruit and the oil.
The Olio Olivia Competition takes place from November third to fifth and is likely one of the highlights of the olive harvest in Italy.
Taggiasca olives are the satisfaction of Liguria
As an olive selection you will see that right here primarily the Taggiasca olive, which is grown within the space of Imperia. It is likely one of the most well-known varieties in Italy and probably the most well-known olive in Liguria. It’s medium in measurement, has an elongated form, agency flesh and skinny pores and skin. Its delicate and spicy style makes it widespread each as a desk olive and for olive oil. You may acknowledge them by their fascinating coloration. They don’t have a uniform hue, however go from inexperienced to black with purple hues.
Enjoyable Truth: Vitamin specialists suggest olives as a wholesome, salty snack within the night. 100 grams of inexperienced olives have about 154 kcal (whereas 100 grams of potato chips have 536).
Help the locals by staying in an Albergo Diffuso in Liguria
Barely hidden inland, however only some kilometers from Imperia, the Relais del Maro is positioned within the small village of Borgomaro. As an Albergo Diffuso, the Relais del Maro is unfold over a number of former residential and business buildings. On this manner, the previous buildings have been given a brand new use, and you reside among the many locals. For sustainable mobility, you may lease e-bikes. Or you should utilize the general public buses that can take you additionally to the Olive Competition.
Nocella del Belice olives from Sicily
On the southern Italian island of Sicily, the Nocella olive is the star. It’s a spherical, fleshy olive that’s harvested whereas nonetheless inexperienced and has a nutty, recent taste. The olive is DOP protected. It is a seal acknowledged by the European Union that certifies that the agricultural product is restricted to a selected area (on this case, Sicily) and that all the manufacturing course of (from harvest to completed product) takes place there. Nocella olives, like Taggiasca olives, are appropriate for each desk olives and olive oil. The 2023 olive harvest takes place in October and November.
The ADLER Spa Resort SICILIA opened simply over a yr in the past. The sustainable spa resort was constructed with pure supplies from the area and is positioned instantly on a WWF-protected wild seaside, which the workers cleans of marine particles every day. Along with olive bushes, the grounds embody many orange and lemon bushes, in addition to native herbs utilized in ADLER’s farm-to-table cuisine.
If you wish to see the olive harvest in Sicily, there are a number of excursions supplied to the olive plantation Villa Patrizia north of Montallegro. Right here the house owners, Christa and Giocomo, will personally information you thru the olive grove and clarify the varieties and peculiarities of cultivation. Afterwards you’ll go to the oil mill and see how the olives are pressed. The whole lot is accompanied by tastings.
The subsequent date for an excursion to the olive harvest in Sicily is 14.10.2023.
Tip: The olive oil from Sicily can be out there on-line at Patrizia Feinkost.
Olives in Spain endure from local weather change in 2023
Forecasts say that European olive oil will likely be dearer this yr. It’s because the 2023 olive harvest within the main producing nation of Spain suffered from the warmth wave. The olive tree can tolerate drought and warmth properly, however the first warmth wave this yr got here in April and plenty of blossoms had been merely burned by the solar.
Olive Harvest on the Canary Islands
Within the Canary Islands, few olives are grown commercially in comparison with the Spanish mainland. This is able to hardly be doable by way of space. However, the dry and heat local weather is splendidly suited to the olive tree and you will see that it on all Canary Islands.
In keeping with Jörg Kroker, one of many official vacationer guides for all Canary Islands, olive manufacturing has skilled a big upward pattern in recent times and Canarian desk olives and Canarian olive oil are very talked-about on the markets. Because the vacationer information writes on his web site, there are 18 oil mills within the Canary Islands that press further virgin olive oil:
- 9 oil mills in Gran Canaria
- 5 in Fuerteventura
- 4 in Tenerife
Gran Canaria has about 70,000 olive bushes
The biggest olive oil producer within the Canary Islands is Gran Canaria. In keeping with Kroker, the island produces round 80 tons of olive oil every year. That will sound like rather a lot, however when you think about that Spain’s whole manufacturing of over 1.3 million tons of olive oil per yr covers 40 p.c of all the world market, it’s clearly not a lot. However it is usually an island with solely 865,000 inhabitants.
So it’s all of the nicer to go to native tastings right here and purchase olives and oil instantly from the farmers. This protects CO2 from transport and packaging. (Now if you happen to take a look at it independently of the holiday).
Sustainable boutique lodge in Gran Canaria
In case you are on the lookout for a sustainable approach to journey to the vacation island of Gran Canaria, we are able to suggest our Inexperienced PearlsⓇ accomplice, Casa León Royal Retreat. The small boutique lodge with solely 25 rooms is positioned inland in the course of a ten,000 sq. meter property with native crops – together with, in fact, olive bushes.
Enjoyable reality: Right here’s why olives are so wholesome
Olives include many beneficial vitamins. They’re about 14 p.c fats, oleic acid. In keeping with diet specialists, oleic acid retains the guts wholesome, prevents liver injury, regulates blood lipids, and enriches the intestine flora with good micro organism. Olives additionally include iron, calcium, nutritional vitamins, folic acid, antioxidants, and different wholesome compounds. It could be optimum to eat 7 olives a day.
Olive oil from Tenerife comes from a farmers’ initiative
The Canary Island of Tenerife doesn’t have a protracted custom of olive cultivation. It was solely in 2013 that the primary olive oil from Tenerife got here available on the market. Its identify is “Oleoteide“. That is due to a farmers’ initiative launched by Manuel Marrero, president of the vineyard “Cumbres de Abona”. The initiative has planted round 22,000 olive bushes of the Picual and Arbequina varieties and processes them into olive oil utilizing its personal oil press.
Picual olives belong to probably the most generally grown olives for oil manufacturing. Arbequina olives are of probably the most fragrant.
In case you are on trip in Tenerife, you may help the farmers’ initiative by shopping for “oleoteide”, an area specialty, as a memento.
Mix a trip on the time of the olive harvest with spa and wellness
The OCÉANO Health Spa Hotel is the best sustainable lodging on Tenerife. Situated on the Atlantic coast, it has a number of saltwater swimming pools. For the health-conscious, the Well being Spa Lodge provides day by day yoga, health, and massages. The kitchen makes use of natural elements as a lot as doable, with a desire for regional merchandise. These embody a wide range of goat’s milk merchandise from a close-by goat farm, in addition to native olive oil.
Reflections on the Olive Tree
Ideas concerning the olive tree are widespread, particularly amongst educated adults. There are quite a few research on the well being advantages of the fruit (from coronary heart well being to magnificence tricks to a sexual enhancer); tiny quantities promoting at astounding costs; and, in fact, there’s a deep historic and spiritual element to all of it. So, what did the dove of peace carry in its beak after the all-destroying flood? It was not roses or laurels – it was a blessed olive department.
The olive tree isn’t a outstanding phenomenon in itself, however while you harvest olives, you one way or the other understand that the fruit is particular. Scent, heat and a nice feeling in your arms – that’s what I consider once I consider the olive harvest, which is simply across the nook. We decide olives yearly, and yearly I pickle some.
Right here’s the best way to pickle olives
- Wash and clear the olives
- Put together the brine: Combine water with salt and a bit of vinegar. To check, put a uncooked egg within the water – if it floats, there’s sufficient salt within the answer.
- Cube lemons and chilies and put them in screw-top jars with the chopped olives.
- Cowl the olives with salted water.
- After about three months, the olives are able to eat.
That is exactly the recipe that everybody (that I do know of) makes use of to arrange their olives right here in our space of Jerusalem, and that is additionally how youngsters in colleges and kindergartens protect the olives. I need to say, nonetheless, that for some purpose I by no means discover my very own olives as profitable as these of my neighbors and relations. It simply takes (as with good dough) a knack for it, along with the recipe. A minimum of that’s what I feel – or do you’ve got a tip for me?
