The olive tree, with its slender leaves and green trunks, may seem ordinary to those living among them, but they are the backbone of Mediterranean cultures, nurturing and sustaining them.

The discovery of fossilized olive pollen in a crater on the volcanic Greek island of Santorini suggests that olive trees existed there approximately 4,000 years ago, although the ancestors who domesticated the olive may have originated in Mesopotamia.

Ancient Greek civilization began with the olive tree. It was a plant dedicated to Athena, the goddess of wisdom, as depicted on the walls of the Parthenon. Legend holds that Athens' roots depended on an olive tree planted by Athena, who outshone her rival Poseidon by demonstrating that a small seed could lead to significant good. Legends support the central role of the olive tree in classical times, providing food, wood, and fuel.

The original Greek Olympians, smoother today than those in lycra suits, covered themselves in nothing but olive oil. The fastest, strongest athletes wore crowns woven from wild olive leaves.

Olive trees are slow-growing, but once they take root in the right conditions, they thrive. Like turtles nesting in the hay fields under these trees, olives like to take their time. It's a tree that can tolerate searing heat and dry soil; while other plants may wilt and die, the evergreen olive basks in the brightest sunlight and thrives in temperatures above 40°C. The silver-green olive covers dusty hillsides from Spain to Syria, Türkiye to Tunisia. It is the wonder tree of the Mediterranean and the Middle East, producing fruit, leaves, wood, and rich oil from dry, dehydrated soil.

The aromatic scent and ease of processing make olive wood popular with carpenters. Its rich brown grains swing outward from the follicular nodules, giving it a rare sense of flow. An ancient piece of polished olive wood is like the secret entrance to a vortex, calm on the surface but surging within. Skilled carvers value the gold grains, which create a natural rhythm in their work. The Holy Door of Hollis in Solomon's Temple and the pair of cherubs guarding the Most Holy Inner Sanctuary were formed from this wood.

Olives can be stored in brine for long periods, but Mediterranean soaking methods vary. Unripe olives also need treatment with water and wood ash to cure their bitterness. Black olives are usually soaked in vinegar or dried and salted, like the juicy Greek variety Kalamata. To extract oil, the fruit must be crushed to obtain the flesh and then pressed. Many of the bitter glucosides present in fresh olives are removed as the oil separates from the water-based pulp.

Modern factories use steam engines to process olives quickly and efficiently, but for thousands of years, olives were crushed by huge stones, driven by slow-moving donkeys that circled the stones. The term “extra-virgin olive oil” refers to olive oil with the lowest acidity and highest quality.