My Olive Garden is an Orchard of Health and NutritionThe Olive Health Benefits are Legendary Olives are a fruit and olive oil is it's cold pressed juice. That’s why it’s so healthy and used in the finest cuisines all over the world.
I had no personal olive garden until I was introduced to green and black olives in 1971. I had just moved to America from Thailand with my husband and was pregnant with our son. One of our friends shared a green olive that was stuffed with a pimento with me. From that point forward I have craved both green and black olives. I include this fruit as much as possible in my meal preparation and recipes. Since 1971, my personal olive garden has been blooming with health and flavor for all around me. Not long after I discovered olive oil; I promptly changed many of my traditional Thai and American recipes to include olive oil. A perfect fit for a healthy life-style. Olives are loaded with healthy monounsaturated fats and fit well into a low calorie, low carb, nutritional diet. I include this beautiful little fruit in new recipes as well as Thai recipes that have been handed down for decades. Visit My Recipes to see what I have done with this great little fruit. In The Garlic Lady's personal olive garden I have developed a number of stuffings for my green olives and have pitted the famous little Greek Kalamata Olive, a wonderful eating olive. The green olive is picked green and unripe. The black olive is allowed to fully ripen on the tree to a black color. There are lots of uses for olives. Green olives are great to munch on right out of the jar, in recipes and fantastic in drinks such as a Martini or a Bloody Mary. Green olives are ripened to its dark luster. Olives are a fun little fruit once considered sacred. The Greeks considered olives a symbol of goodness and nobility. Even today the branches of the Olive Tree are a symbol of peace. Although the tree was first grown around the Mediterranean, it is now also cultivated in tropical areas of the United States, Latin America and Australia. The olive trees found around the world are olive gardens small, evergreen tree and average 20 feet or more in height. It has many thin branches with leaves about 2 ¼ inches long. The bark is pale gray with numberous flowers, which are small and creamy white in color. Not all olives taste the same. The quality and flavor vary widely from one grower to another. It is much like wine in this respect. The climate, weather and soil affect the taste of olives. Some are spicy and some are mild. The color variation has to do with the time of harvest rather than the quality of the olive. This fruit cannot be eaten right off the tree. Olives require special care to reduce the bitterness. The aging methods vary with the olive variety, region of cultivation and the desired taste, texture and color. In addition to the original color of the olive, the color is affected by fermentation (pickling) and/or curing in oil, water, brine, vinegar or salt. In my olive garden, the olives are bottled in brine, which helps to keep the olives firmness and flood of herbal delight. I know once you try this delicious fruit after being in my brine you will come back for more time after time! And don't just discard the brine; mix it into your salad dressings, sandwich spreads or anywhere you can imagine a splash of olive/herb infused vinegar. Olives, one of the oldest foods known, are thought to have originated in Crete between five and seven thousands years ago. The use of olives quickly spread throughout Egypt, Greece, Palestine and Asia Minor. Olives were brought to America by the Spanish and Portuguese explorers during the 15th and 16th Centuries. Olives were introduced into California by the Franciscan Missionaries in the late 18th Century.
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