The olive
tree
The olive tree (Olea
europea) is an ever green noble tree, native to the warm climate of the Holy
Land and the coastal areas of the Mediterranean basin. It’s short, squat and
rarely grows more than ten meters in height with numerous and uneven leafy
branches. The silvery green leaves are oblong in shape and a source for many
medications. The trunk is gnarled, twisted and becomes hollowed from the inside
when the tree reaches more than100 years old. The olive tree is a slow growing
tree and can survive up to 2000 years. According to the Holy Bible, Jesus prayed
in the Garden of Gethsemane amongst olive trees that still exist nowadays. The
age of an olive tree in Crete Island, claimed to be more than 2000 years old,
was determined according to tree ring analyses.
Olive trees flourishes in May,
millions of tiny white perfumed flowers emerge in groups in front of every
single leave filling the air with a unique odor. Only about 5% of these flowers
germinate to develop into the blessed olive fruit with its sharp bitter taste.
Fruits are harvested in September at the green stage to make pickled olives for
daily consumption, or left to further ripen to a dark purple color to extract
the golden precious olive oil from.
The Olive tree is one of the
plants most cited and respected in recorded literature and history. It was an
olive branch that Noah’s dove brought back to the ark as a sign of peace. Since
then, both the olive branch and
the dove became symbols of peace and conciliation between all nations.
Olive oil was used to anoint prophets and kings, Jesus was anointed with olive
oil, and he was called in Aramic, Hebrew and Arabic languages (Messiah) which
means (The Anointed). Leafy branches of olive trees were considered a symbol of
abundance, majesty and glory; victors of Olympic Games were and still are
crowned with olive branches in Greece. King Salomon decorated the Temple of
Jerusalem with cedar and olive wood and lit its lamps with olive oil. Nowadays,
churches in the Holy Land use only olive oil to light the altar’s oil lamps as a
symbol of blessing and sign of peace and conciliation between God and
mankind.
Olive trees like all fruit
trees in order to remain productive, must be pruned every other year to
eliminate old infectious branches, thus giving space to new healthier branches
to emerge, and to expose the inner part of the tree to sun rays. Sometimes in
some pruning methods, the whole trunk of unproductive trees is removed so that
new sprouts emerging from the roots can grow to form a new young tree.
At Olivart we are environmentally
friendly, we use only the wood resulting from tree’s pruning throughout all our
production process, and we never buy or use the wood of illegally rooted out or
“butchered” trees.
According to legislations in force in the Holy
Land, olive trees are a protected specie and it is a crime to root out an olive
tree unless for a legitimate reason.
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