A few more facts brought to you by Olivivo 🙂
During the time of the Roman Empire olive oil from ‘Hispania’ (The Roman name for Spain and Portugal) was considered of superior quality and highly sought after In Rome and throughout the empire.
The Spanish word for oil is Aceite which comes from the Arabic Al-Zat (Olive Juice)
5-6 Kg of olives are needed to produce a litre of Extra Virgin Olive Oil. A mature tree will produce 30-70Kg of olives per year. Now do the Maths!
Olive Trees need a harsh environment to produce the best quality olive oil. Very little water, the cold winters and blazing hot summers of the Axarquia trigger the trees to produce more antioxidants in their olives! If you are lucky enough to own an olive tree don’t spoil it by pampering it!
There is a trade off between yield and quality. A well watered and (fertilized – Yuk!) tree will produce more olives but the resulting oil will be of inferior quality. Similarly a tree of fully ripened olives will produce more oil but again picking them at an earlier stage of ripeness will result in better oil.
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