20 Olive Facts

June 1st is National Olive Day. While you’re celebrating the day with your olive pizza, your salad with olive oil dressing or just a bowl of round treats, check out these 20 fun facts about the fruit. (Yep, I said fruit)

1. The olive is a vegetable, but a fruit.
2. These trees are believed to have originated from the coast of Mediterranean Sea and Western Asia.
3. The fruit can be green, purple, dark brown, black, and even pink in color.
4. These fruit trees can reach 26 to 49 feet in height.
5. Leaves on the trees are oval-shaped and elongated, with leathery, grayish green on the top and whitish on the bottom.
6. Their trees only bloom white flowers after four years.
7. The first harvest will happen after 15 years.
8. Their trees are an alternate fruit bearing tree, which means one year it could produce much more fruit than the previous year.
9. An olive tree can live up to 2,000 years.
10. The average life of a tree is between 300 and 600 years.
11. There are over 800 million trees planted worldwide.
12. One of oldest olive trees in the world is on the island of Crete and is still producing fruit after 4,000 years.
13. Color of the fruit depends on the maturity. Unripe fruit is green. Ripe fruit is dark purple to black in color.
14. Before you can eat the fruit, it must be processed to remove the bitter glucoside oleuropein. They’re first treated with lye and then pickled.
15. Olives contain about 20% oil.
16. People around the world consume over 3 million tons of olive oil each year.
17. Olives are rich source of oils, minerals and vitamins A, E, K and B.
18. California is responsible for producing 95% of all olives in the United States and 99% of all the olive oil.
19. 11 pounds of the pressed fruit produces one quart of Extra Virgin Olive Oil.
20. One liter of oil is produced from the pressing of 7 liters of olives

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Sources:
Just Fun Facts
California Ripe Olives
We Olive