- The olive tree was the ΄Sacred Tree΄ of the city of Athens. According to the legend, Goddess Athena offered the olive tree to the Athenians to win her competition against God Poseidon over who would name the city after them. Even today, the Olive Branch is the symbol of peace, strength and life.
- The prize for the winners of the Olympic Games was a wreath of olive leaves.
- It is said that the systematic cultivation of the olive tree began in Crete and has influenced the economy, culture and lifestyle of the island's inhabitants.
- Olive tree cultivation in Crete dates back to the Stone Age and continues without interruption from the Minoan period until today. Many archaeological findings such as representations of Minoan vases and wall paintings, large olive oil storage jars, rudimentary oil mills and olive presses, lamps, etc., written testimonies and huge olive trees thousands of years old, attest to the development of olive tree farming on the island.
- The oldest painting of an olive tree is 3,700 years old and was found in Knossos.
- In the excavations in the palace of Zakros, olives were discovered unchanged for 3,500 years.
- Olive trees live hundreds of years. There are olive trees in Crete that are more than a millenium old, such as the monumental olive tree of Azorias, in Kavoussi, Ierapetra, 3300 years old, the monumental olive tree of Vouvo in Chania, 3000-5000 years old which still bears fruit, etc.
- The olive tree can regrow, even if it is cut or burned.
- Olives can survive and be productive up to 750 meters altitude.
- There are over 30,000,000 olive trees in Crete.
- 3 to 7 kg of olives are needed for one kg of olive oil and one tree produces 12 kg of olive oil every second year.
- The olive trees are harvested in the winter; the unripe olives are green in color while the ripe ones are purple or black.
- In the past, the olives were picked by hand, today there are electric sticks and plastic nets. The olives are transported to the mills where the oil is crushed and extracted. The olive oil produced here is unique in terms of nutrients and taste. Table olives are also excellent.
- the small olives are put in water with salt and lemon for 15 days, to become sweeter, whereas the bigger stafidolies, due to a fungus, can be eaten immediately.
- The Museum of Olives and Oil, in Vatolakkos Chania, 15 kilometers southwest of Chania, exhibits a rich collection of household utensils, which were used in the preparation of olive oil and an old oil press with the animal-powered oil mill. It chronicles the way generations and generations worked but also highlights the place that all these objects had in people's lives.
(more articles about Crete on www.gomega.gr)
