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... the olive tree ...
a heavy dense wood huge amounts of good coloured flames
hot with a perfume like a snuffed candle
dancing flames and a long time for the flames to die down
if you like a fire with plenty of flames then this is the one for you
Olive trees or shrubs are evergreen and are native to the coastal areas of the Mediterranean, Asia and Africa. It is not a large tree and seldom grows above fifteen metres, it is quite a short squat tree but the trunk is generally gnarled and twisted |
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The bark has shades of brown and green and the wood is golden on the outside with beige heartwood, very dense and heavy with a silken sheen to the inside of the logs Our Olive firewood is from Portugal |
In the original Olympic Games, olive oil was used to fuel the “eternal flame”, leaves from the Olive tree were used as crowns for the athletes in the Games and were even found in King Tutankhamun’s tomb |
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Olive trees can live to an amazing age – on the island of Crete, one has been calculated to be over 2,000 years old using a tree ring analysis, and in Croatia a 1,600 year old tree is still producing about 30 kilos of fruit per year! |
To produce 50 gallons of oil it takes a ton of olives |
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Pruning these trees plays an important part in the production of the fruit, not only to produce flowers but also to allow easy gathering of the crop. Quite often the crop from the old trees is enormous but this does not happen every year. |
California recorded the first planting of olive tress around 1769 by Franciscan missionaries in San Diego – there is about thirty five species altogether and they are particularly prized for their oil. |
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For woodworkers it is highly valued - because the wood is very hard, close-grained and quite often veined with a darker hue it makes spectacular pieces |
Did you know … olives are the most extensively cultivated fruit crop in the world using up over 8.5 million hectares. |
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