Olive Trees

View over olive tree plantations from the walking path between Linares and Linares-Baeza / Spain

Nikon 1 J1, 30-110mm © 2015 Miguel Witte

I live in Linares/Spain (about 300 kilometres south of Madrid in Andalusia) which is a former industrial and mining hub, now a university city and shopping town. From Linares there is a footpath which is a few kilometres long and leads to a village called “Estación Linares-Baeza”, where the train station is located. The area is mainly surrounded by olive groves.

Coming from Germany to Spain the first time and having just arrived in Granada/Spain I went to a coffee shop in the morning to have breakfast. When I looked around I was amazed to see lots of people having breakfast in a way I never had seen before: spreading crushed tomatoes over a slice of baguette-type toasted bread and then drizzling olive oil over it and sprinkling salt on top. To be honest I was shocked at first. No butter, just oil! It looked coarse to me. Later friends explained to me that crude olive oil is very tasty and healthy as well. As it is used crude it retains all the nutrients and yes, it is fatty, but it is vegetable oil and not from an animal and therefore it’s supposed to be more healthy. I tried it and have found it delicious to this day, it has added to my diet in a positive way. The province of Jaén/Andalusia/Spain is the largest producer of olive oil in the world. The countryside views are breathtaking, there are olive trees everywhere, stretching to the horizon, with much of the olive oil produced being sold to Italy. There are also olive oil farmers in the Jaén province who have decided to produce high quality olive oil.

Overall olive oil is very much a gourmet product. Similar to wine there are important differences: the type of olive and olive tree, the soil where it grows, a stronger or lighter taste, the time for harvesting, and so on.

Of course, olive oil and olive trees have had and still have a huge impact not only with regards to cooking and diet but economically and culturally as well. During the first quarter of the 20th century, the famous Spanish modernist poet Antonio Machado lived for some years in the town of Baeza/Jaen-Province. His poem "The Olives" depicts beautifully the many aspects surrounding olive trees in a very layered and truthfully complex poetry: "Old thirsty olive trees / Under the glaring sun, / Dusty olive groves ..."

Links:

Jaén-Province: Wikipedia-article: Province of Jaén

Antonio Machado: Wikipedia-article: Antonio Machado