The olive tree is part of the Oleaceae family. It grows in the Mediterranean area in Spain, Portugal, France, Italy, Croatia, and Greece. An olive tree is very sensitive to frost; this is why it only grows in warm areas. They can survive long dry periods and thrive in poor soil. One olive tree lives up to 1000 years, grows about 20ms tall and gives of 30-40kg olives.  Its leaves are green on one side, and silvery on the other. They are narrow, long and oval with pointed ends. An olive tree is an evergreen.

Olive farmers plant little olive trees row after row. The olive fruit begins as a bud which starts to grow in February or March (depends on the temperature).For the buds to bloom the temperature needs to be 12-15°C. The blossom with four leaves opens in June and is pollinated by bees and wind. The fruit ripens from June to October. During this time the olive changes its color several times. At first an olive is dark green, then it turns to greenish-yellow, then yellow with red dots, then to violet and finally to black. During this process the temperature needs to be 18-40°C.

Once the olives are ripe, in October or November, farmers harvest them. Large olive plantations use big machines which shack the tree so that the olives fall down into a net. But the farmers of the little farms, which use most of the olives for themselves, spread a net out on the ground. Then they use big combs to “brush” the olives from the bottom of the tree. Afterwards they climb onto ladders or into the tree to get the olives at the top. After the tree has no more olives, the farmer pulls at the corners of the net so all the olives roll to one point. Now he scoops them into sacks to be brought to the press or market. The sooner the olives get to the press the better, because the longer they are separated from the tree the more sour acid they build.

Ninety-two percent of all olives go to a press to be made into olive oil; the other eight percent go directly to the market as caned olives. At the press the farmer’s olives get weighted in kilograms and the farmer is told how much liters of oil he is going to get and when to pick it up. The olives go into a large cylinder where the oil gets pressed out. The peeling and seeds go through a pipe and fall into a trailer for farmers to fertilize his fields. The oil goes into bottles and is given back to the farmer.