Olive oil

Olive oil can be burnt. It cleans and lubricates. Cosmetics are made with olive oil, and it is used to polis diamonds and anoint kings and children. It is rich in Vitamin E and does
not have cholesterol. It is an exceptional preservative and can preserve fish, cheese or even wine for years. And of course, it is part of our diet. For over 6000 years, Mediterranean cultures have given olive oil countless uses; it has been used as a means of exchange and to cure people. Now the rest of the world is discovering olive oil, the most versatile juice ever to be squeezed.

Vines and wild olive trees, native to the Near East, were the first plants ever to be farmed. Although its origins are not very clear, the olive tree may belong to the same family as oleasters, thorny bushes with little fruits that have no use for men but are very common in Mediterranean countries.

It is very likely that in the Copper Age – 4,000 BC –, a certain olive tree variety, result of an hybridization of African and Oriental olive trees, was selected in the Near East for its big and fleshy fruits. On the other hand, traces of old structures used for the extraction of olive oil dating from the year 5,000 BC have been found in Palestine.

As we have already mentioned, olive oil has many different purposes. For instance, in Babylonia, doctors were known as “asu” (“olive connoisseurs”). Egypt, on the other hand, imported olive oil from Crete, and it was used mainly for the cosmetics manufacture and lighting. The presence of olive oil in antiquity is evidenced by Greek mythology, the Bible, and thousands of texts from all times and cultures.

Over the centuries, its farming moved from the centre of Persia and Mesopotamia to Egypt, Phoenicia and, subsequently, to Greece. In the course of their travels, the Greeks spread the use of olive oil throughout their many colonies around the Mediterranean. It is said that some of the olive trees that can still be found in old Greek colonies were planted by the Greeks
themselves. The Romans took the baton and continued expanding olive groves across their empire. They even tried to introduce olive farming in the North of Italy, where conditions were
adverse.

The Hispanic vessels found in Italy evidence the importance of Hispanic olive farmers and its good preservation until nowadays. In the most ancient cookbook there is proof of, De re coquinaria, from the 1st Century, Apicius mentioned Hispanic olive oil several times. Nowadays, olive groves can be found all over the world, in every area with a Mediterranean climate, such as California, Australia, Argentina or even New Zealand.

Olive farming is an important tradition in Aragon, and it has become one of the mainstays of its economy. Olive farming, introduced in the Iberian Peninsula by the Greeks and Phoenicians around the year 500 BC, reached its peak in the Roman Empire, although it is true that traces of olive farming have been found among the remains of the fist Iberian settlers.