Olea europea. The European olive. A tough tree, used to hot summers and long periods of low rainfall, yet capable of growing to 10m in height and living for a very long time. It is said that the olives in the garden at Gethsemane are the same ones that were growing in the time of Christ. Their silver and green leaves flicker attractively in the wind and provide perfect shade: just the right mix of sun and air. The ripe fruit is inedibly bitter, but rich in oil — the only vegetable oil that can be extracted by a simple process and that can be used without further treatment.

The olive and its oil underpin the story of the development of human civilisation. Persians, Egyptians, Cretans, Greeks and Romans loved the stuff, made it the basis of their economies. It was the primal light of civilisation, burning in lamps to free man from the tyranny of the dark. When perfumed, it adorned the bodies of the wealthy and the athletic, and in food it provided the energy that kept life moving. It became interwoven with the daily and spiritual lives of peoples throughout the Mediterranean, becoming a symbol of peace and redemption, of fruitfulness and virtue. And then, when the centre of civilisation moved northwards, to the cold lands where animal fats replaced olive oil and it was impossible to grow the tree, the olive became all symbol and no substance. When the northern Europeans expanded around the world, taking with them their foods and habits, industrialising and modernising and sanitising as they went, the olive and its oil was cherished only in its heartland.

In the modern world, the olive is resuming its rightful place as the basis of the food chain for a healthy life. Fine olive oil is a gourmet delight, and widely touted as beneficial to health. Pickled olives in a myriad of forms decorate drinks, canapés, pizzas and fashionable restaurant dishes. In the Mediterranean and the cuisines of the South of France, Spain, Italy, Greece and the Middle East and North Africa, the olive never went away. In the Southern Hemisphere, the olive accompanied settlers wherever they went, arriving in America, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand soon after the first Europeans. And it is in these countries that olive growing is now taking hold in a big way. In Australia, growers confidently expect to be able to fulfil local demand for quality oil early in the new millennium, and soon thereafter export to the world. In Argentina, massive new plantations are being established, while in New Zealand, growers are beginning to produce oils that stand comparison with the world's best.

The Olive Book was first published in New Zealand by Canterbury University Press in October 1999. It is available in softback. 148 pages, 240 x 170mm, colour photographs and illustrations.

PRICING
Softback NZ$39.95
(inc GST in NZ, airmail shipping worldwide NZ$15 extra).

ISBN
0-908812-80-9

Published by Canterbury University Press.