10 



THE OLIVE TREE. 



olive ripens in November and December. 

 The fruit is gathered before being fully 

 ripe, but is allowed to remain a few days 

 for the evaporation of any moisture. It 

 is then crushed in an edge -wheel mill of 

 stone, commonly drawn by horse -power. 

 The stone resembles a large grindstone 

 with the edge serrated, and the mill is 

 not unlike the bark mills in use in the 

 United States thirty years since. The 

 object in serrating the edge of the stone 

 is to avoid crushing the seeds or kernels, 

 which contain tannin and a little inferior 

 oil. The virgin oil is dipped from the 

 mill, and is almost invariably kept to en- 

 rich poorer qualities of oil. The pom- 

 ace is placed in coarse linen bags about 

 eighteen inches in diameter. Several of 

 these are put into a screw -press and the 

 power applied. The oil expressed runs 

 into a tank. This gives the first quality 

 of oil. The pomace is now taken from 

 the bags, broken up finely, and again put 

 under the screw -press for a second and third 

 time, on each occasion yielding less oil and of 

 an inferior quality. After the third pressing, the 

 pomace is again broken, and a half gallon of 

 boiling water poured into each bag. It is again 

 pressed, yielding an inferior oil used for burn- 

 ing, lubricating, and in the manufacture of cas- 

 tile soap. Even the virgin oil when first press- 

 ed is turbid, but clears itself by standing in 

 vessels not open to the air. It should be kept 

 in places having an even temperature. The 

 product of all of the pressings is about three 

 gallons of oil to the bushel of olives. 



PICKLED OLIVES. 



The best olive for pickling is the Picholine 

 (Oleo oblonga). In the south of France it is 

 gathered in October, just before the fruit has 

 commenced to turn brown. The finest are se- 

 lected and placed in a weak solution of soda, 

 to which lime has been added. After remain- 

 ing in this solution about ten hours, or until 

 the pulp can be readily detached from the ker- 

 nel, they are removed and placed in cold water, 

 which is daily changed for a week. The pro- 

 cess removes the tannin from the unripe fruit. 

 When they cease to be bitter, they are bottled 

 in brine, which is usually made aromatic with 

 coriander or fennel. The next best variety for 

 pickling, is the Olea minor lucensis, ninth varie- 

 ty in New Duhamel. This is also valuable for 

 oil. 



In Portugal the ordinary larger kind grown 

 for oil is used to a vast extent as food, and the 

 experience of ages in that country, and of the 



FIG. 



whole Hebrew race (the healthiest race of men 

 in the world), everywhere bears testimony to 

 its value. If he had to go one hundred miles 

 for his olives, the Jew would have them. 



Without attempting to give the detpils of 

 treating the Spanish olive for long preserva- 

 tion, for export, etc., I may in this place men- 

 tion that the olive plays no inconsiderable part 

 in the ordinary food of the people of Portugal ; 

 and the experience of ages has shown it to be 

 both grateful to the palate and wholesome. 

 Now the common practice is to allow the larger 

 and more fleshy kinds to become ripe, i. e. y 

 black, when they lose a good deal of their as- 

 tringent and acrid taste. These are then scald- 

 ed in water considerably under boiling, into 

 which an ounce or so of soda to the gallon is 

 dissolved, and let stand in it for three or four 

 hours in fact, till it is cold. They are then 

 taken out and well washed in cold water sev- 

 eral times over, and finally put into a clean 

 wooden or large earthenware vessel, and com- 

 pletely covered with a pretty strong brine of 

 salt and water, and covered up from the air. 

 Another lot, first treated as above, is put down 

 as a pickle in moderately strong vinegar and 

 used as required. 



When I allude to the preparation of Spanish 

 olives for export, I only mean the plans adopted 

 in packing, in pickle, oil, bottling, etc. The 

 preparation of the fruit is alike in all cases 

 save that when dealing with the full ripe ones 

 we remove the salt-water pickle three or four 

 times at intervals of a week or so, and each 

 time the berries are rendered more mellow. I 

 have kept them in ordinary large earthenware 



