Olive trees are indigenous to Mediterranean. Spain and Italy are the major producers of olive oil. This land is fertile and well-drained and partially calcareous. The olive trees flourish in the hilly mountainous areas and bear fruit every other year.
The main producers of olive oil are Italy and Spain. The World Capital of olive oil is Jaen, Spain which produces sixty percent of the national olive produce. Olives are delicious fruits, which can also be pressed into a healthy and tasteful oil. The leaves can be used as an antioxidant and for hypertension.
The olive tree (olea europaea and part of the Drupe family) is an evergreen. The olive tree has a gnarled modest sized-trunk. Trees produce fruit for about 150 years.
The tree will live on for another 50 years after it stops producing the fruit. The tree can regenerate itself when it has been cut down. New baby shoots will pop out from the trunk’s base and a brand new tree will grow. This process can happen over and over through time.
These slow growing trees will not produce fruit for at least the first eight years. These can be rather tall trees ranging from 3 to 20 meters in height. The height of the full grown tree depends on the situation in which it’s growing and the pruning it may have received through the years.
The olive trees came to grow in Spain from the wandering tribes that were sent out of Syria. These tribes settled on the northern edges of Africa and were known as the Phoenician colonies. These colonies branched out to Algeria, Libya, Morocco and eventually in Spain. As they wandered inland they brought with them the plantation of olive groves.
Later on the Greeks and Romans came to settle in the Mediterranean region bringing with them the cultivation of olive trees.
Remnants of Oil Amphorae pottery has been found in the Crete and Syria area dating as far back as 2000 BC. Olive Oil Amphorae could only be used once. Fragments of Amphorae have been found on Monte Testaccio near Rome. Spain produced the biggest volume of olive oil during the Roman Empire.
Olive tree growth and its olive fruit/oil produce were vital to Spain's economy. During the five hundred year occupation of The Roman Empire, olive trees were well established and Spain prospered from the olive grove implantation. Between Spain's vast yield of cereal crops and olive oil production: bread and Spanish olive oil became part of a national staple diet dating from Roman times.
Christopher Columbus brought the olive trees to America when he first discovered The New World.
The planting and growth of olive trees disseminated from Syria to Greece via Anatolia (De Candolle – 1883). Again, olive tree cultivation also took place.
Find out more about the olive tree by visiting http://www.andalucia-andalusia.com/the-olive-tree.html. Travel to the beautiful region of Spain where these magnificient trees grow. For more information see: http://www.andalucia-andalusia.com/index.html
