1-800-654-8374
I-5 Exit #631
Our family welcomes you...
Family owned & operated for
50 years!
Login
Account
Wishlist
Cart
Shop Now
Categories
Top 20
Gift Boxes
Gifts
Gourmet Mustards & Horseradish
Jams, Jellies, Tea, Honey & Syrup
Nuts & Butters
Oils
Olives
Organic Products
Salsa, Sauces, & Dressing
Seasoning & Spices
Beans, Pasta & Snacks
Soaps & Beauty Care
Spreads & Tapenades
Vegetables
Vinegar
Café
About
Visit
Contact
Categories
Top 20
Gift Boxes
Gifts
Gourmet Mustards & Horseradish
Jams, Jellies, Tea, Honey & Syrup
Nuts & Butters
Oils
Olives
Organic Products
Salsa, Sauces, & Dressing
Seasoning & Spices
Beans, Pasta & Snacks
Soaps & Beauty Care
Spreads & Tapenades
Vegetables
Vinegar
The History of Olives
Crete and Syria were the first countries to cultivate Olea europaea (the olive tree) over 5,000 years ago
The word olive evolved from the Greek
elaiwa
to
elia
to
maslina
to
olajbogyo
to
oliva
and finally,
olive
Culinary uses of olive oil include cooking oil, bread dips and salad dressing
Other uses of olive oil include lotions, soaps, body oil, medicinal purposes, hair and skin tonic, salve, annointment oil and lamp oil
Olive branches have come to symbolize peace, longevity, fertility, maturity, wealth and prosperity
The olive tree has inspired artists, who tried to capture the emerald and silver hues of the leaves shimmering against an azure Mediterranean sky or the gnarled and twisted branches that withstand the ages, as many olive trees date back hundreds of years
The Impressionists –
Renoir, Matisse, Cezanne and Van Gogh
– were especially enamored of the olive tree and its bounty
Much has been written over the years about the olive – references to the tree and its fruit can be found in works by
Shakespeare, Milton, Byron and Bates
An Expanding World Market
The cultivation of olive trees expanded – to
Egypt, Lebanon, Iberia, Greece, Carthage (Tunis), Arabia, Italy, Spain and France
– trees were prized for their oil and wood
Over the centuries, olive trees were brought to
The Caribbean, Peru, Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Mexico
and finally in 1769 to
California
Cultivation in California
Eight California counties have the Mediterranean climate necessary to produce olives
Olives can be grown on farms of moderate size (15-20 acres)
Olives are hand-harvested and require pruning and tilling
Corning, California
Two primary varieties of olives were planted in Corning, California in 1904 – the Mission variety and Sevillanos from the vicinity of Seville, Spain
Mission trees soon bore the traditional small fruit
Much later the Sevillanos started producing the
Queens
– the largest olives yet seen
Today, several delicious olive varieties are grown in Corning – come in and browse or order on-line – Olive Pit features a wide array of many of these olives and other unique products
Share
Tweet