Know your Table Olives
Did you know that the color of the olive depends on its state of ripeness? All olives start out green and become dark brown/purple as they ripen. Some cultivars are best green, others ripe and black. Here are more interesting facts about olives…
Organic Olives from Laharna Farm
- Laharna Farm Products are all about the quality and not the quantity.
- We at Laharna Farm Products take pride in the authentic production and hand processes used to produce a high-quality signature product.
- We do not add any artificial preservatives or any other additives. All are naturally produced.
An olive picked straight from the tree is inedible, it is a dreadful tasting fruit this is because olives contain high levels of bitter phenolic compounds (oleuropein and phenolic) which make it intensely bitter that is why olives are put through the process of being soaked in brine (curing) to leach out these compounds or minimize them to make them more palatable.
- The colour of the olive depends on its state of ripeness. All olives start out green and become dark brown/purple as they ripen. Some cultivars are best green, others ripe and black.
- Green olives (Manzanilla) are picked before they ripen and brined to make them edible The ripened state means for a dense flavored fruit. They originated from Spain.
- Mission olives (Laharna farm cultivar) are picked green for oil pressing or ripened (light purple) for curing and pressing oil. Mission olives originated in California and are the most popular variant in SA due to their good flesh-to-pip ratio.
- Kalamata olives are a dark purple to black olive depending on when they are picked. Most people assume all darker olives are kalamata which is incorrect. They originated from Greece
- There are over 20 different cultivars (types) of olives grown in South Africa however the above-mentioned 4 are the most common for their use, taste, and versatility.
- Olives in South Africa grow the best in the Western Cape due to its Mediterranean-like climate.
- Commercial cultivation of olives started over a century ago. Recently table olive oil production bypassed imports, making this relatively young industry one of the fastest-growing in the agricultural sector.
