May 10 2008
Greek Olives
The Greek olive tree is without a doubt, a tree of mythical proportions. Its history goes back hand in hand with the founding and development of civilizations around the Mediterranean. Its fruit, the olive, has been used through the centuries for the extraction of οil and the consumption as table olives. The table olive is a fruit coming from a diverse variety of olive trees and harvested at different degrees of maturity. It is available in different qualities, shapes, colors, forms, flavouring and tastes. Olives are usually consumed as appetizers or in salads. However, over the last few years, the olive has caught the imagination of contemporary chefs, so that in todays Greek kitchen, olives are everywhere: in breads, in pasta, in pies, in stuffings, in pizzas, in dips and sauces.
For thousand of years olives have been a basic component of the Mediterranean diet. They have great nutritional value. Their goodness and quality is comparable to those of its derivative, the olive oil and their consumption is beneficial to health. Olives are rich in energy, minerals and vitamins and have great antioxidant properties.
Greece is the second largest olive producer in the EU and fifth in the worldan with about 120.000 tons of table olives yearly. About 40.000 tons of Greek olives are consumed locally and about 80.000 tons are exported to about 80 countries around the world, amounting to about 6,5% of exported Greek agricultural products.
There are many olive varieties in Greece. However, only some of them satisfy the quality requirements allowing them to be used for table consumption. The three main Greek table olive varieties which are unique in quality, taste and texture, having a good flesh to stone ratio are the following:
1. Conservolia: This is the most commercially important variety accounting for about 50% of table olive production in Greece. It is a medium to large fruit, round to oval-shaped, has a thin, elastic skin and the pulp has a fine, consistent texture. They are processed with equal success as both a green and black olive.
2. Kalamata: The King of Greek table olives and one of the best-known olives in the world also called “Calamon”. It accounts for about 20% of table olive production in Greece. Kalamatas are shiny, brownish-black, tight-skinned with a characteristic ‘’almond’’ shape. The Kalamata is the most highly prized black olive; it is usually slit on both sides and preserved in vinegar and olive oil.
3. Halkidiki: This variety is mainly grown in the Halkidiki peninsula, in Northern Greece, accounting for about 20% of table olive production in Greece. These olives are the classic, large Greek olives; elongated with a prominent tip at the bottom.
These olive varieties and some others which are smaller in production are offered in different forms like whole, pitted, stuffed, sliced or cracked. Following are the two most important reasons that make the Greek table olive probably the best in the world from a taste and quality point of view:
1. Firstly, the unique soil, sun and climate in Greece create suitable conditions so that the hundreds of years old olive trees offer their best fruit every year. These fruits are of excellent quality, taste and flavor. In Greece nowadays there are 10 different table olive products certified as PDO (protected designation of origin) products; meaning that the EU guarantees consumers the extra quality of these products, closely related to the place of their production. However, in countries outside the EU the PDO products are regularly misused - meaning that products from other countries are sold under PDO names falsely. A characteristic example of this is the name of Kalamata olives used deceptively by companies from other countries.
2. The second unique advantage of the Greek table olives is that they are natural products. This means that they ripen naturally on the trees, turning from green to greenish-yellow, greenish-red, purple and then black. These naturally Black table olives - mainly of Conservolia and Kalamata varieties - are cured in brine solution only, in order that their bitterness is eliminated during the fermentation process.
The majority of olives you’ll find on the market are unpasteurized since pasteurization is harmful to the flavor, color and even texture of the olive. Olives, in most cases, are traditionally cured, helping them retain the unique bouquet, full flavor and distinctive texture that you’d get from eating the olive at its source, although there are a variety of processes to create different flavors according to the different markets, like olives that are sun dried, stored in sea salt or stuffed with different igredients.
Curing & Processing
Unripe olives are green, very bitter and unpalatable (raw or cooked), therefore once harvested they are soaked in a series of solutions or plain water for a period of time to remove this bitter taste (curing process). As olives are ripenning they gradually turn to black. Lye curing takes some days to cure the olives whereas traditional curing processes require months. The following traditional curing processes are very common:
- Oil-cured: Soaking in oil for several months.
- Brine-cured: Soaking in brine for one to six months.
- Dry-cured: Packing in salt for one or more months.
- Water-cured: Olives can also be cured in plain water by soaking, rinsing, and resoaking, but this method is the slowest of all and is rarely used. The longer an olive is cured, the less bitter and more complex in flavor it becomes.
Olives are harvested from October to January. When the olives have been preserved they are described as fresh for one year, after that period they are just preserved olives. Those destined for consumption (not for direct processing like making olive oil) are hand harvested to prevent bruising and then classified according to their maturity into four categories:
- Green Olives: These olives are harvested in October at the earliest stages of maturity.
- Pink Olives: Slightly riper, these have a rose or brown color and are harvested in November prior to reaching full maturity.
- Black Olives: Harvested in December at full maturity, these have a smooth, black skin and a deep reddish-black hue.
- Wrinkled Black Olives: Not to be confused with dry-cured olives, these are fully ripened fruits harvested in January.