Last week, my wife and I took a stroll in Old Orchard park and she was beside herself with happiness that all of the olive trees there were in full bloom, with thick, hard olives hanging off a dozen or more trees.
Naturally she had me (Jeffrey the Giraffe she calls me) pluck a few olives and even grab a loose branch or two so that she can produce home made olive oil. Here’s part of our haul:
My wife is not the first to appreciate olive trees, nor am I the first to steel from them. Olive trees and the fruit they produce have been cultivated and appreciated by man for 7,000 years according to Wikipedia. We use the fruit of the olive tree to make olive oil, and it’s no exaggeration to say that wars have been fought to secure land favorable for olive tree growth.
The Bible mentions olive trees dozens of times, and olive oil is thought of as sacred. We use it to “annoint” people and, in the Catholic tradition, send them off to meet their maker. In Mario Puzo’s “The Godfather,” a young Don Vito Corleone’s first business (legitimate or otherwise) is the Genco Olive Oil Import Company. In ancient Greece, triumphant armies and victorious warriors and fighters were crowned with wreaths of olives. War and peace symbolism extend even further: when people write of making peace, they say one side is extending the “olive branch” to the other.
Even the Great Seal of the United States has olive symbolism in it. The Bald Eagle clutches in his right talons an olive branch with 13 olives (for the 13 original colonies), while in his left talon he holds 13 arrows. The Bald Eagle’s head is always pointed to the left, towards the olives and the peace they represent. Though you wouldn’t have guessed that if you’ve been reading the news lately.
The SCV, with its semi-arid, Mediterranean climate, probably would have made a wonderful place to grow olive trees. Had our community existed in the time and place of Greek nation-states, we would likely have been very wealthy indeed, and one can imagine the floor of the valley covered in row upon row of coveted olive trees. That’s something to think a bout the next time you stroll through a local park or along a paseo in the spring and see loose olives scattered everywhere.
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Beautifully portrayed imagery intertwined with history and culture. Thanks for a renewed desire to peruse the paseos with a renewed desire to experience all the diverse foliage the Santa Clarita has to offer…
I take it the olives are edible? When do you pick em and such?
“nor am I the first to steel from them.”
I’m thinking maybe you are.
Sylmar just on the other side of the hills was one huge olive grove. When future President Ronald Reagan’s mother, Nellie, founded the sanitarium, which later became the current hospital, it was named Olive View because of the beautiful and plentiful olive groves surrounding the hospital.
I posted a general comment below, but to comment on this (as well as the post about a thriving California olive oil market):
I posted a general comment below, but I wanted to comment on this specifically (and the one below about a market for California olive oil.
Significant quantities of olive oil were produced in San Fernando and elsewhere in California when World War I cut off the supply from Europe. But it withered when Spanish and Italian olive oil again became available and close-in land was developed. California land and labor are too expensive to allow us to be competitive. There are boutique olive oils produced but the cost is high and I don’t see a significant taste advantage over the European (or north African) oil.
Olives are a different story. What you see in cans, on salads and pizzas as black olives are, generally, California Mission olives. Olives don’t ripen (black olives are ripe, green ones aren’t) on a tree all at the same time and if you want to pick and pack only ripe (black) olives you have to pick several times (expensive). The black olives you buy are mostly picked green all at one time and ripened or blackened artificially with lye (one of the processes by which you can cure olives and remove the bitterness).
I am told that, at one time, olives were grown in Vasquez Canyon but I have never been able to confirm this. Santa Clarita has ideal conditions for growing olives (and pomegranates), and they don’t take a lot of water.
Santa Clarita Is Olive Country!
For 15 years, I have walked my kids to Old Orchard park, and enjoyed the olive trees. I have often thought about picking the olives — as well as the little, tiny strawberries that provide ground cover along the paseo — but not knowing what chemicals are used for pesticide control, et al, I have refrained.
Gang Fang, olives are not edible, straight from the tree. I believe the fruit is super high in tannins, and must be cured. Or something like that.
Thanks, always wondered but never looked into it.
Don’t forget, there’s an olive tree at the front of the complex just outside the gate. I think the landscapers cut it back and there are no olives on it now, but the olives will be back. Then there are the apple trees, the lemon tree at the front, a fig tree at the back near the pool and rosemary throughout. You could practically live off the land.
How do you make the olive oil? Huge grove of olive trees at Central Park , hole 7 of the frisbee golf course.
I always over shoot the 8 hole when slinging the disc past the trees.
I am wondering the same thing. Jeff, how are you processing these?
I got reprimanded for inaccuracy. We’re not making olive oil at all. You need many more olives for that.
We are going to do the process Lori described, tanning, toward some end. All of the olives are sitting in water right now.
When you go to the store and buy canned Olives, take a look at where they come from, if they are Lindsey, they are from California.
I just read somewhere that the US imports over 70 million gallons of olive oil per year. There is a triving California olive oil industry and it starting to win some awards..think local!
My first full-time job was at a museum in San Diego. The building was surrounded by olive trees which every year would drop their oily purple fruit on the spanish tiles, creating an awful mess. The janitor hated those trees.
You have to admire the ingenuity of the human being who first came up with a method of transforming a bitter, inedible fruit into a delicious and healthy food.
I planted an olive tree in my front yard many years ago The tree was always beautiful to look at but the mess during “season” was intolerable. There is a spray that can be used to discourage the tree from bearing fruit. The town of Mentryville has 7 or 8 trees that have been there for decades.
We planted small groves (now about 20 trees each) over the last 12-15 years with an eye to establishing a tree nursery. Most of the trees are now mature and bear a lot of frut and we are now ready to take large numbers of cuttings.
I don’t know if there is still fruit on the olive trees, but if there is, it’s yours for the picking (the rain probably knocked them all down). I’ll have to climb the hill and look. The pomegranates are just leafing out. Anyone wanting cuttings to try and root their own trees can have them. Or if you want to just climb the hill and look, come on out. (661-250-3091–Near Soledad and Sand Canyon.)
We did cure olives, press olive oil, and make pomegranate jelly and wine for a couple of years, but producing small quantities is not worth the effort.
Santa Clarita Is Olive Country (or could be)!
P.S. As the comments of others show, fruit-bearing olive trees are not suitable for landscaping. There are non-fruiting varieties but they are unreliable and often produce fruit. Pomegranates are a beautiful tree/bush and can be used for landscaping. When mature, they produce about 50 pomegranates each around Thanksgiving.
P.P.S. Mixed in with the pictures here are pictures of the trees. These are a couple of years old and the trees are much bigger now (cut and paste if it’s not a link).
http://www.flickr.com/photos/scfarms/sets/72157605773751506/
No story or comment from Tim Myers or anyone else regarding the judge this morning throwing out the latest bogus library lawsuit against the City?
See khts
Thanks Don.
Olives, Berta. O-L-I-V-E-S.