🫒 Olive

Olives: The Tree, the Varieties and the Products

What kind of plant is the olive tree, which olive varieties are grown, and what is made from the fruit? Table olive varieties from Gemlik to Memecik, and the products of the olive.

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The olive is one of the oldest cultivated plants of the Mediterranean basin. An olive tree can live for centuries and bear fruit on dry, stony ground, which is why it stands for the continuity of farming in this geography.

This section covers the botany of the olive tree, the principal olive varieties grown in Turkey — Gemlik, Ayvalık, Memecik, Domat, Nizip Yağlık — and the products made from the fruit. From how table olives are cured to olive leaf and pomace, you will find what each part of the tree is good for.

Article Olive Leaf and Olive Leaf Tea The leaves left over from pruning need not be thrown away. What olive leaf contains, how the tea is made, and the limits worth respecting.

Article Table Olive Varieties From Gemlik to Kalamata, Manzanilla to Castelvetrano: the world's best-known table olives and what each is good for.

Article How to Grow an Olive Tree Soil, climate, watering, pruning and patience. A basic care guide for anyone planting an olive tree.

Article The Difference Between Black and Green Olives Not two different trees but the same fruit at two different moments. So why do they differ in taste, texture and nutrition?

Article The Olive Harvest: When and How Early harvest or late? The timing of picking directly determines the oil's acidity, polyphenols and yield.

Article How Are Olives Cured? An olive straight from the tree is inedible — it is bitter. In water, in salt, in lye or scored: the methods that remove the bitterness, and how long each takes.

Article Olive Varieties There are more than 800 olive varieties in the world. Every geography and every climate has created its own distinct variety. Discover this colourful world, from Turkish olives to Italian and Greek varieties.

Article Products from Olive The treasures offered by the olive tree extend far beyond the kitchen. From its fruit to its leaves, stone to vegetation water, almost every part is transformed into valuable products.

Article The Olive Tree Olea europaea — the "European olive" — is one of the oldest cultivated trees in the world. The symbol of the Mediterranean, the emblem of peace and a source of healing for millennia, the olive tree is one of nature's most extraordinary gifts.