 Homer called it "liquid gold". Olive oil has been more than mere food to the people of the Mediterranean. It has been a medicine, an endless source of fascination and wonder and also a fountain of great wealth and power.
 The olive tree is native to the Mediterranean basin; wild olives were collected by Neolithic people as early as the 8th millennium BC. However, it is not clear when and where olive trees were first domesticated. There is a widespread view that the first cultivation took place on the island of Crete. The earliest surviving olive oil amphorae date to 3500 BC (Early Minoan times) and remains of olive trees have been found in many places in Greece.
Until 1500 BC, the eastern coastal areas of the Mediterranean were the ones most heavily cultivated. Olive trees were certainly cultivated by the Late Minoan period (1500 BC) in Crete, where the first export of the olive oil started not only to mainland Greece but to Northern Africa and Asia Minor as well. Very soon, the cultivation passed to mainland Greece and the olive tree and olive oil became the milestone of the Greek diet for centuries to come.
In Ancient Greece, the olive tree was a symbol of peace. Olive oil was used not only for its valuable nutritional quality but also for ritual and medical purposes. Between the 7th and 3rd centuries BC, ancient philosophers, physicians and historians undertook its botanical classifications and referred to the curative properties of olive oil. This knowledge is being "rediscovered" today, as modern scientists recognize the many benefits of the Mediterranean diet.
Both historically and today, Greece has been and continues to be one of the most important exporters of high quality olive oil worldwide.
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The Greek island of Lesvos is in the Aegean Sea. Its capital is the town of Mytilene, and it lies at the edge of Greece and Europe’s geopolitical borders. It is on this island (in the area of Thermi) where an archaeologist found a primitive Bronze Age oil press that dates back to 2800 - 2000 BC.
 From the 8th c. BC and onwards there was a boom in commerce. The cultivation of the olive tree had by this time also spread to the rest of Greece, where the tree was worshipped and where its branches crowned the winners of the Olympic Games. In the 3rd c. AD the olive groves of Lesvos were estimated at 45,000 km2.
Since the 11th A.C century, Lesvos has attracted the attention of the Italian merchants. For the next years the island economy flourished and the foundations of today’s olive groves were laid.
January 10th, 1850 was a significant date in the history of the Lesvos olive tree. The day was preceded by 40 days of rain and warm southerly winds. Suddenly that night, the thermometer dropped to -8o C. The warm and damp skin of the olive fruit frosted over and burst. The olive groves of Lesvos were completely destroyed. In the spring of 1850, green shoots sprouted from the few trees that had survived the frost, but there were no olives to be harvested and pressed in order to produce olive oil. It was then that the inhabitants took the great decision of replanting all of Lesvos with new trees. They brought in new varieties, the ‘kolovi’ and the ‘adramytiani’, which were more resilient to the cold. The olive groves with their young, vital trees grew to be ten times bigger than the original ones, reaching a total of 450,000 Km2.
 During the decades that followed, the economy of Lesvos saw an upward swing. Olive oil and olive soap were the main products, which amounted to 70% of the island’s exports. One third of the olive oil was exported to Marseilles and one fourth to England. Later, when the local shipping lines were improved, Istanbul and other closer markets were established. Russia also absorbed significant percentages of the olive oil exports.
Today, the olive continues to be the biggest part of the islanders’ main occupation as well as their main topic of conversation. |
