Olives

It's olive time in Jordan!! Whether you have acres of olive trees or just one or two trees, its olives that are on your mind. Eusevius, the religious writer around 335 AD wrote:

"To mankind who is a civilized animal and honoured by the great god, excellent food, bread, wine and olive oil, was given. The bread supports and strengthens the heart, the wine lightens the spirit and the oil relaxes the body in that it cures and alleviates demanding hardships."

No wonder long ago they sometimes referred to olive oil as 'holy juice'.

The olive tree produces a good crop every other year. In between it rests and although it will produce olives they will much fewer in quantity. These days wherever you see olive trees people are picking and the country roads are full of trucks loaded with olive bags or tins of oil. Since it has already rained the picking is much easier......much less dusty and the olives are already partially cleaned. Most of the olives have already turned black but some are still green and that will give the oil a greenish color due to the presence of more chlorophyll. I prefer that darker oil rather than the golden-yellow oil produced when all the olives have turned reddish or black. But they say the lighter oil is better for cooking.

The pressing sites are also crowded as lorries and pickup trucks arrive with more bags of olives. There are stacks of bags everywhwere and people are waiting for their turn at the press. Today I took a lorry full of olives to the nearby press but was told I would have to wait until tomorrow, midnight, for my turn!! That was a bit annoying although I have had to wait longer in the past. I'll just have totake a dose of olive oil to lower my blood pressure!!! They say it's also good for lowering cholesterol, slowing cancer, helping to maintain bone thickness and protecting against osteoporosis. I've even read that its good for the treatment of diabetes. But midnight?!! (Remember this next time you dip your pitta bread into olive oil!!) Actually, the best thing about that hour is someone is sure to arrive with fresh bread.....then with fresh oil, a hot cup of tea and all the chatter about olives, oil, and farms......morning comes quickly!

Experts say that when pressing olives the ideal would be to produce 3 litres of oil from 12.5 kilos of olives. But that ratio is affected by so many factors: whether or not the olives are pressed when ripe, what type they are (there are about fifty different varieties), the soil where they are grown and the rainfall they receive. Most, if not all, of the olive oil pressed in Jordan is 'virgin', (the manager of the press insists it is 'extra virgin') as it is a natural product unaltered by chemicals or other processing and the heat during pressing does not exceed 33 degrees Celsius. (The differentiation between all those labels you might see on bottled oil in the stores reading 'olive oil - extra', 'olive oil - fine', 'semi-fine', 'lampante', all has to do with the acidity - the lower being the better.)

At the press the oil is put into 16 litre tins. But in most households it is then poured for daily use into transparent bottles. These should be kept in a cool dark place as the oil is sensitive to light, even fluorescent lighting, which will speed up the oxidation causing the oil to taste a bit rancid. Well, if that happens and you need a new tin, maybe I can help you out........

For now.....happy eating!!! ..............z