Pun intended: Olive…A New Year. Like individuals, olives run the gamut between the California’s Mission 
olive (mostly converted to olive oil) to the heart-stopping Nyon French olive. Olives, minus the saltiest ones, are healthy foods, filled with antioxidants. Olives can adorn any hors d’oeuvres plate, add a piquant flavor to hearty bread, and are the secret ingredient in many salads, omelettes, stews, casseroles, and tapenades (pureed olives with capers and anchovies). The olive is a “drupe” – or a fruit with a single large stone nestled inside. There are more than 2,000 olive varieties.
So, what’s the difference – Green or Black?
The only difference is degree of ripeness. Green olives are not yet ripe, and are cured before serving. Green olives are picked at the start of harvest season. Have a martini, and you’ll find a green olive. Green olives adorn olive burgers. Bite into olive bread and black olives are the essential ingredient. As olives ripen, they turn light brown to a vibrant red or purple, to the darkest black.
Olives Come From Trees
Olives are part of the Mediterranean food canon. Olive trees thrive in warm, subtropical zones, yet can be planted in zones 10 and 11, with rocky soil and close to water. Olive trees are grown from cut branches or roots, buried in the soil.
Curing converts the olive’s natural sugars into edible fruits
Olives can be cured in salt water, with fermentation lasting about one year. The yield is the sweeter olives. Water curing is basically rinse and repeat, and is the slowest curing process of all. Some olive varieties are packed in salt and dry-cured for a month or longer. The salt draws away the bitterness. Once the salt is removed, olives get an olive oil bath, which can last several months. Olives can be sun and air-cured, leaving the olives on the tree until ready for harvest. Large commercial olive producers often use alkaline lye as a curing agent. If your palate has a chemical aftertaste after eating an olive, you know it was lye-cured.
Health benefits are plenty for adding olives to your diet
Olives contain antioxidants that can help reduce inflammation, improve blood circulation, and can lower blood sugar and cholesterol. They’re a good source of fiber, and can aid in digestion. By eating 10 olives before a meal, it’s said one’s appetite can be reduced 20%. https://www.health24.com
Green Olive Varieties
The Manzanilla Spanish green olive is often available pitted and stuffed. The Gordal olive, also Spanish in origin, is a plump, round green olive. A French olive that might be available in stores is the Picholine, with a subtle, slight salty, anise flavor. This olive is often packed with citric acid as a preservative. This same olive, produced in Cerignola, Italy, is larger in size, with a buttery flavor and crisp texture. Castelvetrano olives are Italy’s snack olives – 
green hue, meaty flesh and mild flavor.
The Black Olive Assortment
On the Greek table, Kalamatas are deep purple with a shiny skin and almond shape. Red wine vinegar often 
preserves the Kalamata, yielding a rich, smoky flavor. Spain is known for the Empeltre black olive, served as a table olive and used to produce high-quality olive oil.
The petite, jet-black Nyon olives are dry-cured, aged in brine, with a meaty, slightly bitter. Often they are served with Provencal olive oil, rosemary and thyme. The Liguria black olive is salt-brine cured and often packed with stems. The Italian black Ponentine is packed in 
vinegar and has a mild flavor. Gaetas have a wrinkled look, mild flavor, and are usually packed with rosemary and other herbs. The Lugano black, often served at tastings, is quite salty.
The olive tree, “LeCailletier,” produces Niçoise olives that exude notes of licorice. The Peruvian Alfonso olives are deep purple, juicy, fleshy and just a bit sour. The Moroccan Beldi are dry-cured and intense in flavor. The hand-
picked Greek Amfissa olives have a mild, fruity flavor, perfect for stews or with cheeses and cured meats.
You Want Olives or Olive Oil, Retail?
Two online websites in the U.S. offer olives and olive oils — https://www.ilovelindsay.com and https://oliveolives.com . Looking for unusual olive oils? Try The Olive Mill —https://oliveoilstores.com https://saratogaoliveoil.com or www.theolivetap.com or www.fustinis.com Most olive and olive oil consumer will be satisfied with finds at grocery and health food stores.
Olives and Olive Branches, Fun and Symbolic
Just to put another pun on olives, there’s this one:
It’s said that a dove returns to Noah’s Ark with a freshly-picked olive leaf, a sign the flood had subsided. Irene, The Greek Goddess of Peace, 
is said to have been fond of olives. Early Olympic games saw olive branches, not medals, awarded to victors. The Continental Congress drafted the Olive Branch Petition to deliver to Great Britain to avoid the Revolutionary War. We know how that turned out.
In 1949, Pablo Picasso was commissioned to present a dove and olive branch for a poster for the 
World Peace Congress. The United Nations has integrated the olive branch has part of its logo.
The world’s countries, divided as they are in 2020, would do well to extend olive branches to other nations, pledging to work for freedom over war. People, the world over, can lead by forgiving over fighting. We all can resound: “Olive A New Year!”
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