The olive tree is intertwined with the history of the Mediterranean. One legend says that the first olive tree grew on Adam's tomb. The ancient Greeks believed that the goddess Athena planted the first olive tree among the rocks of the Acropolis. Today, in Spain, peasant women still keep an olive branch purposefully hidden in the house in the belief that it will keep their husbands faithful.
The Portuguese and Spaniards brought the olive tree to the Americas, providing fruit and oil to entire populations, as both a food staple and lighting fuel. The fruit cannot be eaten as picked; it must to go through treatments that vary according to the region. Olives are usually harvested between the months of November and March, hand-picked by workers on ladders or shaken or struck from the trees, with the olives falling into large nets laid out on the ground below. Green olives are picked when they are not yet ripe; purple olives when they're just ripe; and black olives when they're overripe (a dark, blackish purple color). Regardless of their color, all olives are bitter when fresh and go through a four-step process after picking. They are first separated, according to color and size. Then, they're dunked in lye or wood ash. Next, they're cured in either dry salt, brine (wet salt) or in oil, or even through dry roasting. Finally, they're packed in oil or vinegar. Olives are often cracked, their flesh cut manually or mechanically to allow a marinade of oils and/or herbs and spices to penetrate easily and add flavor; also referred to as slit or split olives. Spain, Italy, Greece and France are the world's main olive-producing countries.
From The Food Encyclopedia by Jacques Rolland and Carol Sherman
