October 2006

Welcome to our October newsletter. The summer season is nearly over and it has been nice to see so many of you these past few months. We are open all year so please keep checking the website for new properties added to our database and if you plan to visit during the winter months let us know an we’d be pleased to meet you.

OLIVES & OLIVE OIL

Olive oil - used to dress your salad and cook with…right? Well yes…but….have you ever thought about it as more than just a cooking aid? For the people of the Mediterranean, olive oil is and has been more than mere food. It has been medicinal, magical, an endless source of fascination and wonder and the fountain of great wealth and power.

The olive tree has a revered place in Ancient Greek mythology - the goddess Athena was believed to have created the first tree during her battle with Poseidon, god of the sea, for the city of Attica. Up on the Acropolis, it was decided that the one who gave the city the finest gift should become its patron. Poseidon struck the ground with his trident to create a spring, and Athena planted an olive tree. While the water in Poseidon's spring was salty, and therefore of little value, Athena's olive tree provided the people with food, oil and wood. The city was renamed Athens.
Homer called olive oil “liquid gold." In ancient Greece, athletes ritually rubbed it all over their body. Its mystical glow illuminated history. Drops of it seeped into the bones of dead saints and martyrs through holes in their tombs. The olive tree, symbol of abundance, glory and peace, gave its leafy branches to crown the victorious in friendly games and bloody wars, and the oil of its fruit has anointed the noblest of heads throughout history. Olive crowns and olive branches, emblems of benediction and purification, were ritually offered to deities and powerful figures: some were even found in Tutankhamen's tomb.

CORFU AND ITS OLIVES

Just a quick glance at the fields and hillsides all over Corfu you can’t escape the sight of an olive tree. In fact there are thought to be over 3 million planted over the island - the plantation of them can be traced back to when the island was under the rule of the Venetians as they encouraged the Corfiot farmers to grow them to meet the demand for olive oil back in Venice.
Olives on Corfu are harvested from November until April; six to eight months after their spring blossoms appear. Olive trees require very warm average temperatures and grow successfully in Corfu, with its mild winters and long, hot summers. In many regions, olives are beaten from the tree with poles and caught in large nets.

Other olive farmers now use machine harvesting, including trunk and branch shakers. However, in Corfu growers collect olives that fall naturally to the ground, or are helped on their way by wind and rain. Once collected, the olives are taken to an olive press as if they are not pressed immediately they begin to oxidise and ferment. Thousands of years ago, crushing was done by hand in spherical stone basins.

Today, in a similar method, olives are crushed by mechanical stainless steel grindstones.
The oil is separated from the paste by means of ‘centrifugation’, which simply means spinning the paste round at high speed. Olive oils are graded and judged according to their level of acidity and this method produces ‘extra virgin’ olive oil which is the first cold pressed olive oil. No heat or chemicals have been applied. This oil contains no more than 1% acid, and is considered the finest and fruitiest of all.
It is this ‘cold press’ method that enables olive oil to maintain its flavour, colour and nutritional value. In fact, olive oil is the only oil that can be consumed as it is removed from the fruit. A gentle filtration process is used to remove sediment and produce extra Virgin olive oil with an acidity level of less than 1%.
Any oil with acidity above this level receives an additional refining step to remove almost all traces of colour, aroma, taste and acidity, resulting in extra light tasting olive oil. In order to produce the grade of oil simply known as pure olive oil, extra virgin is added back to extra light to achieve the desired level of flavour and aroma.
Like a fine wine each variety of olive oil is evaluated by tasting an measuring acidity before bottling. Also like wine, no two olive oils are alike. Each is a unique product of soil, climate, olive varieties and age, and processing methods. Oils can be fruity or flowery, nutty or spicy, delicate or mild, and can range from clear to pale green or golden to deep olive green in colour.

DID YOU KNOW??

• Olive oil is said to be an aphrodisiac!

• Olive oil is the only oil that can be consumed as it is removed from the fruit.

• Five kilos of olives are needed to produce one litre of oil.

• Despite its size Greece is the world’s third largest exporter of olive oil - about one third of the total production is exported

• Greeks consume more olive oil per head than any other nation.

• Greece produces about 300,000 tonnes of consistently high quality olive oil each year.

• 70% of Greek olive oil production is Extra Virgin Olive Oil.

• Half of Greek Extra Virgin Olive Oil production is exported to other olive oil producing countries.

• Olive oil consumption in Britain is 1.3 litres per person per year while in Greece it is 25 litres…but….the olive oil market in Britain is growing at a rate of 25% per annum.

• A Greek soap containing pure olive oil is said to help people suffering with eczema and psoriasis.

• Only one tablespoon of olive oil is said to have has wiped out the cholesterol raising effects of two eggs.

• 4 or 5 tablespoons of olive oil daily is said to dramatically improve the blood profiles of heart attack patients.

• 2/3 of a tablespoon of olive oil daily is said to lower blood pressure in men.

• Olive oil is an antidote for ammonia poisoning.

• Some olive trees are known to live for thousands of years. The philosopher Plato founded his academy in an olive grove, and legend has it that an original tree from the grove was alive (though no longer producing olives) until the 1980s - making it more than 2,300 years old.

• Olive oil was originally burned as the "eternal flame" of the Olympic torch. (Over the years it was replaced by various other substances that have unfortunately been proved to be inefficient and dangerous. - After the 1956 Olympics, in which burning chunks of magnesium and aluminium scorched a runner in the final relay, the flame was replaced with much safer lightweight liquid fuels.)

• There are over 700 different kinds of olives. The colour of the olive depends on its degree of ripeness: green olives, harvested early, have high chlorophyll content, whereas olives harvested fully ripe at the end of the season are black.

• Olive leaves have long been a symbol of peace, and are found on the UN emblem and flag, which shows a map of the world encircled by a wreath of crossed olive branches.