How to be interesting, let alone innovate on such a trite topic ? The olive tree, in its coastal Mediterranean setting, is an all-too familiar sight from memoirs, travelogues, novels and movies. In our minds, it accompanies thyme, rosemary, hysope, donkeys, sheep and goats. We should hold on to these beloved sights, smells and tastes. Yet, many questions beg for answers.
When and why did the first name Oliver originate? Likewise, when and why did olive oil become a foodie must? When did mankind domesticate olive trees? In the play of power in the Eastern Mediterranean between Ancient Greece, Egypt and Israel, did olive trees indeed play a role?
But first the name. Olive in English or in French stems from the Latin oliva, which in turn comes from the Ancient Greek elaia — with already the double or triple meaning of the tree, the fruit and the oil.
Oliver comes from Olivier, it entered the British Isles with the Franco-Norman conquest of 1066. It was a borrowing of Germanic origin. Its forebears probably were the Old Norse Áleifr and its Germanic form Alfher, related to Olaf.
It became Romanized into Olivier and Oliver due to the proximity of the Latin word oliva.
Its increased use during the Middle Ages was due to the popularity of La Chanson de Roland, an epic story — and a poem in 4,000 lines — dating indeed to the 11th century, written in Anglo-Norman: its hero, Roland, had as his best friend a knight named Olivier. ‟Roland est preux et Olivier est sage‟:
Roland is brave and Olivier is wise, sums up one of the lines, in French translation.
The archeological record shows imports of wine, olive oil, cosmetics, and timber into Egypt from the Aegean, specifically from Minoan and Mycenian cultures. The Greeks of Antiquity thus acquainted Egyptians with the olive tree, during Minoan and Mycenian times — 15th to 13th centuries BC. Olive tree products served as diplomatic gifts to pharaoh Akhenaten (ca. 1355 to ca. 1338 BC) and then, more prosaically, became part of the trade. Olive branches acquired symbolic meaning to the Egyptians: they were depicted as offerings on the wall of the Aten temple and they were used in wreaths for the burial of Tutankhamen , Akhenaten’s son.
What about the Jews? Of course, they were also involved in the Eastern Mediterranean trade. And we all know of the happy end to the Flood, with a dove bringing an olive leaf or branch to Noah (Genesis, 8:11). This piece of evidence is near-contemporary with the Akhenaten-Tutankhamen connection, Genesis having been composed between 1450 BC and 1400 BC.
Domestication of olive trees occurred much earlier. They were first cultivated some 7,000 years ago in the Mediterranean area. Edible olives go back to the early Bronze Age (3150 to 1200 BC). The evidence comes from written tablets, olive pits, and wood fragments found by archeologists in tombs.
An interesting aspect is reproduction of domesticated olive trees: not from seeds, but from grafting. Another rather fascinating feature is their lifespan. It is not measured in years but in centuries and millennias! For sure, they do not rival the most ancient tree known, a distinction currently held by a bristlecone pine tree, Pinus longaeva, in California's White Mountain range; it is 4,700 years old.
Olive trees from groves in the Mediterranean are centuries old, with some dated to 2,000 years. An olive tree on the Brijuni (Brioni) island in Croatia , has a radiocarbon-dated age of about 1,600 years. It still gives fruit (about 30 kg or 66 lb per year), that continue being pressed into olive oil.
Green olives are the unripe fruit, while black olives are picked when ripe. The tapenade relish, this may surprise the readers, is not a mere olive purée. Indeed, it owes its name to that of its major ingredient, capers (not olives), in the Occitan language. English language readers learned of it from Elizabeth David’s classic, French Provincial Cooking. She, in turn, adopted a recipe from the authoritative 1897 book, La cuisinière provençale, by Jean-Baptiste Reboul. Reboul stated that tapenade was first devised in 1880 by the chef Meynier, at the ‟Maison Dorée‟ restaurant in Marseille. Did he owe this preparation to his mother? It seems likely.
Let me mention, regarding gastronomy, rather than canard à l’orange, made famous by ‟La Tour d’Argent‟ restaurant in Paris, the canard aux olives, another classic of French cuisine, to be savored for instance at ‟Chez Allard,‟ likewise in Paris. Green olives give a welcome and somewhat tart contrast in taste to the fatty bird.
And what about olive oil, should we privilege its use? Absolutely. There is firm evidence that adoption of a typical Mediterranean diet with olive oil as the predominant fat source brings about improved health, lower mortality and increased longevity, reduced risk of cardiovascular diseases, cancer, and lowered incidence of age-related cognitive decline as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease.
Which brings up economics: are olive trees thriving, worlwide? Not entirely, due to climate change. Yes, already! As an example, consider the year 2018: it was disastrous for olive oil production by three major players in the market, Greece, Italy and California.
Italy produced 265,000 tons of olive oil, which is the country’s third smallest yield in more than a decade. In Greece, only 225,000 tons were produced , which represents their third worst harvest in the past decade as well.
In California, unusual weather events made the 2018 olive harvest 57 percent lower than the previous year. February wrought temperatures as high as 80 degrees Fahrenheit, which induced olive buds to bloom early. Then cold weather hit back—freezing the tender blossoms, which prevented them from forming into flowers and, ultimately, fruit.
France and Australia also experienced harvest difficulties due to excessive rain, drought, heat waves, and damage from the olive fly — a pest whose larvae feed on olive fruit. All these damaging factors, including the olive fly , are expected to increase with climate change. With droughts and desertification affecting some parts of the world, will our grandchildren witness plantation of olive trees in Iceland, Greenland and Alaska?
Let me not strike too pessimistic a note though: the same year 2018, Spain and Portugal took up some of the slack, they had record high productions of olive oil — due to modernized farms benefiting from irrigation.
Centuries-old olive trees are as much a resource to mankind as wheat, corn or grape.