| The olive flower is white and only flowers after four years. | Olive trees are harvested for the first time after 15 years. | The smallest is known as a ‘bullet’. | It takes 5 kilos of olives to make one litre of olive oil. | The largest type of olive is called a ‘Atlas’. | The world consumes about 2.25 million tonnes of olive oil a year. | |||||
| The average life of an olive tree is between 300 and 600 years. | The oldest certified olive tree is more than 2000 years old. | An olive branch appears on the national flags of seven nations, four US states and the flag of the United Nations. | One city and three towns in the United States are called ‘Olive Branch’. | Olive branches (2,550 of them) were used at the 2004 Olympics Games in Athens when the tradition of crowning Olympians with an olive spray was revived. | Olives are rich in Vitamin E and ‘good fat’. | |||||
| Your five daily portions of fruit can include 16 olives, which make one portion. | In Greek mythology the goddess Athena gave the olive tree as a gift to the city of Athens. | At the games at Olympia, a wreath of olive leaves was the prize. | In early Greek and Hebrew cultures, it was a capital crime to destroy an olive tree. | For centuries, the olive branch has represented a symbol of peace. | The first vegetation brought back by a dove to Noah after the flood was a branch from an olive tree. |
