posted September 26, 2004 02:28 AM         

this is a tribute to olives. and i'd like to discover all about them.

aren't they one of the main foods in the bible? truly the fruit of the garden.

one thing about them...are they always preserved? does one ever eat them 'fresh'?

posted September 26, 2004 02:40 AM         

No matter what the conditions: hot, dry, cold, wet, rocky, or sandy, the evergreen olive tree will live and produce fruit. It is said that you can never kill an olive tree. Even when cut down or burned, new shoots will emerge from its roots. This Scripture passage reminds us that no matter the conditions of life, we should remain steadfast as the olive tree in the presence of God - evergreen (faithful) and bearing fruit.

(from the website bridges for peace)

posted September 26, 2004 03:01 AM         

thank you Sparkle!

posted September 26, 2004 01:27 PM         

You have come to the right place sweetie. I am olive mad.

My Greek grandmother had olive farms in Cyprus. They are now owned by my cousin so they are still in the family.

My sister has just purchased a house with over 500 ancient olive trees in Sardinia this year. Some of those trees are said to be over 1000 years old.

I grew up with olives and I eat olives and use olive oil every day. Olives are the most marvellous food medicine, research has confirmed what most Mediterranean people have known all along. Here is the story. Polyunsaturated fats can combine in the body to form oxygen. These form peroxides which are otherwise known as 'free radicals' so the more unsaturated fat, the more free radicals are created. These are what we call unstable compounds and are highly destructive to cells, membranes, and even denature DNA.

Now this process can be kept at bay with certain antioxidants. Olive oil and olives have antioxidants that are reallly high, and it can be consumed without any risk. Did you know that olives contains high vitamin E. in the most active alpha form?

However there are other active compounds in olives and olive oil. Just as the above would protect your heart and arteries, these compounds are Cycorarthanols which help counteract high fat and high cholesterol. Yes, I did say counteract fat! No more fake 'no fat' salad dressings please. They are full of harmful additives and oils that are of no benefit to you at all.

Olive oil medicine is popular in Greece, Cyprus and the Med. in general. Olives and olive oil are also great for liver problems. On digestability alone, it got a rating of 100 by the US Food and Drug Administration. It beat all other oils, of which the highest was groundnut and that only reached 83.

They found that olive oil was the easiest oil the body could absorb. It promotes intestinal peristalsis ( it helps to carry food down it's long journey through your body ) as well as, help it digest. It is a friend to those who suffer liverish problems, and of course those who have peptic ulcers.

There is a doctor in Greece who is curing incurables by using traditional olive leaf cures. He picks the leaf and liquidzes it in water where it seeps for awhile until it's ready to drink. So amazing has his success rate been, that he has now been given his own lab and extra funding for research. I'll find his site and post it.

Olives have grown in the Mediterranean since
the Neolithic Age. The tree's that belong to my family are all old, enormous, spooky gnarled looking things. We can trace them back 400 years. However it is thought that they are much older. Nobody knows how old.

Olive trees only begin to bear fruit in the 6th or 7th year, but do not reach their full yield until they are about 25 - 30 years old. That yield, my sister tells me is 40 kilo's. Some tree's only produce every other year. My sister makes olive oil with hers. It's virgin and cold pressed which is the best.

When I went to visit the monastery in Khyrossoryiasitissa in Phaphos. I was nicely surprised to find out all visitors get a bottle of wine, a loaf of bread, and a bowl of olives as a gift from the monks. All these vitals are produced by the monks themselves from their land. That's the wine, the wheat for the bread, and of course the olives. They have been doing this since 1152.

I sat under a fig tree in the monastery grounds. Father Kostakis went off to the monastery kitchens and emerged with some Halloumi ( goats cheese ) we enjoyed fresh bread, olives, cheese, wine and fresh figs from the tree for dessert. It was a lovely afternoon. As a woman I was not permitted to enter some parts of the monastery, such a bummer, so Father Kostakis who was a good friend of my grandmother kept me entertained instead. It was all too lovely. He also gave me some honey which I took home. Every thing they do is totally homemade. They produce one of the best liqueursI have ever tasted made from almonds.

Cyprus was one of the first countries to cultivate vineyards and develop wine distilleries. More evidence is given in the archaelogical findings like the Amphora now seen in the Cyprus National Museum and dating back 900 B.C. It reopresents the God Dionysus or ( Buchus ) with the inscription
'The first to drink wine' then we have the Hesiod papers, the historian who lived in 735 B.C and who wrote about the manufacturing of a sweet wine called 'Nama'.
Richard The Lionheart raved about Cypriot wines. It was consumed by the Pharoahs of Eygpt and of course the ancient Greeks and Romans. As you can see, I love wine as much as I do olives. Sorry for the divergence.

posted September 27, 2004 01:23 PM         

I use light olive oil as a moisturizer when I get out of the shower.

Olives...love 'em.

posted October 01, 2004 01:36 PM         

there's so much i'd like to post...and i loved your commentary Gia.

but for now...hi everyone, hope all is well and fine.

posted February 17, 2006 08:15 PM         

I've heard it said that Paul, for some strange mystical reason, travelled only as far as the olive tree grows.

“You will say, ‘Branches were lopped off so that I might be grafted in.’ Very well: they were lopped off for lack of faith, and by faith you hold your place. Put away your pride, and be on your guard; for if God did not spare the native branches, no more will he spare you. Observe the kindness and the severity of God — severity to those who fell away, divine kindness to you, if only you remain within its scope; otherwise you too will be cut off, whereas they, if they do not continue faithless, will be grafted in; for it is in God's power to graft them in again. For if you were cut from your native wild olive and against all nature grafted into the cultivated olive, how much more readily will they, the natural olive-branches, be grafted into their native stock!”

Olive trees are special somehow, aren't they? God bless Vincent and olive trees!