Olive Oil - Liquid Gold

Tuesday 20 February 2024

A couple of days ago we stayed overnight at a private campervan site owned by a small family business producing organic olive oil called Aceite Artejo. Parked by a little lake we were surrounded by relatively young olive trees in a very peaceful setting miles away from traffic.

Throughout our trip we’ve driven past miles and miles of olive groves. We were even diverted off-road through an olive tree plantation on one occasion when the main carriageway was closed without any pre-warning. We drove through Jaén, a province in Andalusia, known as the world's "olive oil capital" due to its production of high-quality olive oil. We also visited Extremadura and Castilla-La Mancha, regions famous for producing some full-bodied oils. 

Figures vary but it is said that Spain produces between 40% and 50% of the world’s olive oil, twice as much as Italy and four times as much as Greece. Thankfully the trees in Spain have been resistant to the disease which has blighted trees in other countries. When we drove around southern Italy last year we witnessed the dead and dying olive trees in Puglia - such a sad sight. Spittlebugs, a common insect, spread a bacteria called Xylella which clogs the vessels carrying water from the roots to the leaves, slowly choking the tree to death. Puglia used to produce 50% of Italy’s olive oil but the disease killed 21 million trees, over a third in the region.

Back to the healthy thriving Spanish olive oil economy. Not only are there many different types of olive trees, which result in different flavours, but the way the olives are managed and harvested also varies enormously. From the traditional shaking of the old mature trees and collection of olives from the ground to the most modern techniques where smaller trees are planted in straight rows and mechanical picking methods are used.

The little business we stayed at offered free olive oil tasting sessions, so at 10am (shortly after finishing breakfast!!) we turned up at the little shop. An array of bottles were lined up and the young lady explained that the 12 different varieties of olive trees they grow on their estate produce oils with quite differing flavours. They are very proud of the fact that the olives are picked and pressed on the same day and they bottle and package all their own oil.

In the ancient world, virgin olive oil was called “liquid gold” by Homer and “the great healer” by Hippocrates. Dave chose his favourite and we left with 3 litres of gorgeous liquid gold.