Tell me about olive trees!

[OriginalGeek]

Last edited Thu Jan 12, 2017, 11:47 AM - Edit history (1)

I mean, uh, please tell me about olive trees.

So I heard on the radio that everybody in Greece has an olive tree or two. I thought "Man! I LOVE olives and olive oil!" how hard would it be to grow my own?" So I looked up on line and was pleasantly surprised to find that olive trees thrive anywhere citrus thrives. Well I live in central Florida so I figure I'm in.

I looked a little around the internet and found a place that sells them for like 50~80 bucks (and up depending on delivery and set up and whatnot). What a deal! Lemoncitrustree.com

But I have no idea what I should be looking for. The trees they sell are arbequina olives which I've never heard of. I love black olives, green olives, kalamata olives, manzanilla olives, briny salty olives, cooking in olive oil, dipping bread in olive oil, I just love olives.

I have also read so far that how you process olives makes a huge difference in taste. You cannot eat olives just right off the tree - they all need to be processed. I don't know yet but hope to find out soon how many olives it takes to make a quart of oil, how much yield I can expect from a tree, best practices for maintaining a steady supply, different recipes for making different kinds of olives...

I am still a little bummed that we had to take out grandpa's orange tree but I think a nice, almost ready-to-eat olive tree would soothe that bummation.

[haele]

1. Here's a good link from the California Olive group with some answers.

http://olivetreegrowers.com/faq.php

Used to live in an old military housing complex where there were old olive trees, and one of my neighbors used to pick the olives at various stages and brine them. I think she was also trying to get some decent olive oil pressed.
The olives weren't exactly like the ones you get in the store, but they were pretty decent.

Haele

[OriginalGeek]

3. Awesome info!

thank you very much!

[hibbing]

2. Souds like a challenge

I wish you the best of luck. I'm stuck in the middle of the country, no citrus or olive trees for me. I always thought it would be awesome to have a lemon tree.


Peace

[OriginalGeek]

4. Thanks

Man I just can't even imagine not having citrus trees around lol. Florida native but even when we moved to Texas we came back here a couple times a year every year so I always had access to home-grown oranges, tangerines, grapefruit etc...We had a fig tree in Dallas but that wasn't really the same thing as visiting both sets of grandparents here and having all the citrus we wanted.

There's a grapefruit tree in Nokomis, FL that my grandpa planted the day I was born. Our family no longer owns that property but I drive by it occasionally just to see "my" tree. Still going strong as far as I can tell.

[Angry Dragon]

16. You should stop and tell them your story .......I bet they let you have a couple

[OriginalGeek]

17. I've actually thought about doing that

My Aunt and Uncle still live about 6 miles from there and I drive by that house on my way to visit them. My Aunt and mother grew up in that little house. I just hate to be the guy showing up unannounced bothering people lol. My grandma lived there until she died and my aunt and mom sold the property but I don't think the people there now are the people Mom and Aunt sold the property to. I should just ask her next time I'm down that way.

The biggest problem is I want to switch my tree for my brother's tree - I got grapefruit (which I don't really like much lol) but he got tangerine which is my absolute favorite citrus. I mean, I love what my tree stands for but I'd just rather eat the other. Although if i went and did ask the current residents and they were amenable, I'd grab a little of everything. Except the kumquats. Those are only good for throwing at brothers.

[Callmecrazy]

25. Nokomis??

[Callmecrazy]

24. Nokomis??

Half of my family lives in Nokomis. And Venice and Osprey and North Port. My folks run a little resort on the North end of Casey Key.
Small World.

[OriginalGeek]

34. Yep!

My little brother was born in Venice hospital. (I was born in Tallahassee which put a crimp in my mom and dad's higher education aspirations so they moved back down to the area so Grandma and Grandpa could help and then didn't stop doing what got them into that mess in the first place)

A long-time friend of the family owned the Dairy Queen there - it wasn't a trip to Florida until we stopped in there for a dipped cone. He's been retired for a good while though - I haven't seen him in probably 15 years and I'm pretty sure he sold it further back than that...

My mom passed away years ago but I still go visit Aunt and Uncle. Plus we have branches all over the area so I get to go for work on occasion. I try to time it so I can eat at Luna's in Venice. Luna's has great Italian food but it's even better when the company is paying.

[Kali]

23. you can grow both in containers and bring indoors in winter - especially the citrus does fine

the olive may not produce fruit well, but it can still manage some (supposed to need two plants but my friend in Germany only has one plant and it has made a few olives on it's own). nothing better than the scent of citrus blossoms in February-March when it sucks outside!

I have a lime tree that makes dozens of big juicy limes. I also have an olive that has had some accidents but it is still hanging in there (it got almost completely dried out two winters ago and lost all its leaves, thought it was dead and almost chucked it but decided to water and give it a chance - it came back a month or so later!)

[OriginalGeek]

35. What I've been reading says they are pretty tough

they can take a lickin' and keep on tickin'.

Some varieties are apparently self-fertile and some need a pollinator. The arbequina I'm looking at is self-fertile. Well, I mean, I'm not gonna look at at while it's doing that. I'll give it some privacy.

[Kali]

36. LOL

[WilmywoodNCparalegal]

5. In Italy, we have...

wait for it...

wait for it...

Olive Gardens

[OriginalGeek]

7. I will be sure to

have bowls of table olives for pit bulls to casually munch on while engaged in breast feeding.

[Coventina]

10. Don't forget to recline your airline seat whilst eating your cornflake fried chicken!

BTW: Are those pit bulls circumcised?

[OriginalGeek]

12. Most are not but

Olive pit bulls are always cut...then stuffed with this little pimiento looking thing..very odd. Glad I do not have that job.

[Brother Buzz]

6. The olive fruit fly killed my cottage industry

Used to be, I harvested olives out in the country. I believed I mapped every abandoned Queen Sevillano Olive tree within twenty miles of home. I made oil, and processed olives by the gallon: Green, black, water cured, lye cured, and even started stuffing olives (a cherry pitter worked slick). But the pesky olive fruit fly invaded California in 1998 and made virtually ALL untreated olive trees useless.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olive_fruit_fly

I'm into grapes now.

[OriginalGeek]

8. I was just reading about those kinds of olives!

an hour ago I would have thought you were speaking Greek to me. But now I've heard of those things! lol

I read that natural predator pest control is preferred over chemical pest control as chemicals can affect the flavor but I haven't read far enough to know what that actually entails.

It looks like California is the best place for it but I think l can get some oliving done here in FL.

Do you think I HAVE to use a manzanillo olive tree in order to get those kinds of olives? OR is the preparation more important than the actual variety? That's the kind my wife likes best (and what I put on pizza and what I think of when I think of "green olives" as opposed to "black olives".)

the lye kinda scares me but there's other preparations too that I might start out with before graduating to chemicals that wifey could disappear me with should I ruin her olives.

I'll have to add olive fruit fly to my list of things to find out about here in FL.

Maybe some day we can trade a bucket of olives for a bucket of grapes lol.

[Brother Buzz]

9. The Manzanillo is a type of olive, and a nice one

If you're thinking of Manzanillo style olive being the green Spanish olive that we love in our martinis, it's pretty easy to do, and can be done with most any olive. But if you're thinking of the fermented olive, forget it, I've had no success with it.

My down and dirty martini olive:

Harvest the green olives when there is just the slightest hint of blush (the ripper the fruit the better the taste)

Cut each olive with two small nicks (you need to break the skin to let the nasty leech out)

Weight the olives down and fill with water with a modest amount of salt (the real salt comes later). If you want green olives you HAVE to weigh them down because the damn olives float and will be exposed to oxygen which turns the black.

Soak for 24 hours, then splash and repeat daily, although you could do it twice a day and speed up the process (remember to weigh them down every day)

Start adding more salt every day and begin tasting them after a week (they will still be bitter, but it will be a measure how they are progressing)

The should done in about 14 days, but knowing when they are done is more an art then science. You need to throw them in the jars and add the vinegar solution when they still have a slight bitterness for the best flavor; after two weeks in the vinegar solution, the remaining bitterness magically disappears.

...........

Lye scares everyone, and for good reason, but there is one approach to the water process that uses lye just once, and for a short two hour period; a strong lye solution breaks down the olive skin barrier and allows the olives to leech without the cuts.

[OriginalGeek]

11. THank you!

I just copied all that into a doc I'm starting to get me rolling on olives.

Everything I've ever needed to know, I either found out by just asking DU or DU pointed me to the right resources. You are awesome, BB!

[Ptah]

13. Olive trees: Banned in Pima County, Arizona

Pollen Production a Problem : Arizona County Bans New Olive Trees
February 07, 1988|EDWARD B. HAVENS | United Press International

TUCSON — The olive branch, an ancient symbol of peace emblazoned on the United Nations flag, is unwelcome in one Arizona desert county which became the first to ban olives as a pollen nuisance.

Pima County has declared war on the olive tree, first imported to California by Franciscan missionaries in 1769 and cultivated in Mediterranean lands for perhaps 54 centuries.

The ripened fruit of the olive tree decorates swizzle sticks in martini glasses and canapes at holiday parties. Its fine-grained wood can be used for sculpture. The extracted oil winds up on salads and in kitchen recipes. But the wind-blown pollen causes sneezing.

Mark Sneller, head of county pollen and mold monitoring, says olive trees don't belong in the Sonora Desert because they contribute to allergies and respiratory problems.

http://articles.latimes.com/1988-02-07/local/me-41046_1_olive-trees

[Mosby]

14. There are a lot of old olive trees in Phoenix

They are ugly, don't provide shade and make a mess, don't know why they were ever planted.

[hunter]

20. They were "instant landscaping" from orchards that had been dug up...

... in the creation of the suburbs.

Olives were among the first full-grown trees to be transplanted.

Most other sorts of full grown trees did not survive transplantation until the process was further refined and specialized equipment developed.

Palm trees are another commonly transplanted species, again, no shade.

[Kali]

26. they are NOT ugly!

they are wonderful old trees and there wouldn't be a mess if people would USE the fruit and not just leave it on the ground!!!

[GoneOffShore]

33. Old olive trees have a rugged beauty.

We visite Chateau Pape-Clement in Bordeaux and saw a couple that had been there since the 900's.

And there is a trade in ancient olive trees. According to the attached article they are sold for very high prices.

http://www.thelocal.es/20170104/a-trip-to-the-land-of-endangered-ancient-olive-trees

[hunter]

15. I love olives of all sorts, but I'm fiercely allergic to the pollen.

[OriginalGeek]

18. yikes

i wonder if that's all of them or certain varieties...I already get sneezy and stuffed up whenever the pollen is high. Adding to it might be bad but then, if I'm already sneezing my head off I might as well have some olives to make me feel better....

[Callmecrazy]

27. Same thing in Las Vegas...

Olive trees, fruitless mulberries and oleander was not allowed to be replanted there because of all the pollen.

[Kali]

28. which made it hard for anybody in southern AZ to find any

I need to get a couple more as I have always wanted to have one in our lower elevation country, I think they would do fine at 3,700 on a slope.

You know what doesn't "belong" in the desert? Yeah a hell of a lot more things than olive trees! Arrgggggg!

[Mosby]

30. there are not many native trees in the sonoran desert

I planted two Chinese elms and they are great trees, lush in the summer and bare in the winter, they provide shade but the canopy is high enough and not too thick so grass can grow underneath. They also deal with the monsoons really well, I have never seen one blow over. They also have really cool looking bark. Right before the leaves fall off they produce seeds that the birds love, especially finches, sparrows and lovebirds.

I know a lot of people like the old olive trees in central phoenix, I'm just not a fan.

[LeftInTX]

31. I accidentally planted a Chinese elm

It was labeled as a Cedar elm. I planted it near our dryer vent. That thing grew huge fast. For years, I was mystified with my rogue Cedar elm.

[patricia92243]

19. I, too, live in Central Florida. When I tried to order a lemon tree -

one of those little Japanese ones (can't remember name) they would not mail it to Florida. So, I'm happily surprised an Olive Tree can be mailed here.

[Phentex]

21. my neighbor has great luck with lemon trees here in GA...

we got one and never had a single lemon!

[OriginalGeek]

22. I meant to make this a link in my OP

http://lemoncitrustree.com/store/

Looks like they have a lot of good stuff including lemons and tangerines - maybe I'll get some of those too...gotta check my backyard space first...

[Callmecrazy]

29. I've seen those in the Garden Center of my local Walmart...

here in Broward County. Bearing fruit.

[OriginalGeek]

32. can we just go in and see if some

"fell on the ground"?

does that count as shoplifting? Officer I was just helping them clean up...

[TuxedoKat]

37. Trees

When I'm researching which variety of fruit tree, bush, etc., to grow for my zone or area, I just google something like
"best olive tree for zone __ or FL", or "best-tasting olives for growing" You can usually find a wealth of info. I listed one below. If you learn how to graft, you can graft a few different varieties of olives on your tree too.

I was thinking though, it's a shame to get rid of your orange tree. If you get a smaller tree and keep it pruned, perhaps you can have both. Trees -- dwarf and semi-dwarf don't need that much space. Commercial apple trees are planted only six feet apart.

http://forums.gardenweb.com/discussions/1970901/olive-trees

This is a good website for gardener's too, it has reviews of nurseries (always a good idea to check before ordering) and forums where people post and answer questions and lots of other info.

http://davesgarden.com/#b

[OriginalGeek]

38. Awesome sites

thank you very much! My boss just left so off to read them now...