Pickled the same since Roman Times

They are green, slightly bitter and are pickled as the procedure back in Roman times: the Mallorcan olives.

As tradition dictates they are conserved in brine instead of water and vinegar as they can also be found in the market. At any rate, the flavour of these island olives is something of an acquired taste. “That is something we gladly accept, but then we produce a unique product, this is our market opportunity”, says Pere Picó Taberner, managing director of the agricultural co-operative of Sant Bartomeu in Sóller, which counts 350 olive growers among its members.

The harvest takes place from October to January, first of all the green ones, then the mature black olives of the native Empeltre variety. Only fault-free examples find their way into the jar. For instance, those fruits that show puncture marks from the damaging olive fruit flies are carefully sorted out. The olives are indeed something of an eco-product. Given that some of them flourish in very high locations in the Tramuntana mountain range, spraying, for instance with herbicides or insecticides, would be extremely costly. “That is why the trees are only treated a little”, asserts Picó. At any rate the pests, for this reason, are mostly bumped off not with chemicals but rather with scented fly traps.

During the season 2006/2007 the harvest of ‘eating olives’ in the Tramuntana range amounted to 20 tonnes. The greater part of the olive production of farmers belonging to the co-operative is harvested in the district of Sóller and also in Fornalutx and Esporles. The olives come from trees that are up to 800 years old. “Many olive trees around Sóller were planted in the time of the Arabs,” states Picó. “Thanks to their ingenious irrigation system, parts of which still exist today, they have made a fertile area of this region.”

The olives are not picked by machine but by hand in order to avoid, as far as possible, damage to the outer skin. Once brought in, some of them are pickled in brine only, while others are additionally pickled in fennel and chillies. So that the olives absorb the taste of the fennel/chillies they are briefly pressed beforehand. In this manner they are slightly opened and the liquid can penetrate more easily the inside of the fruit.

Ninety per cent of the sharp green fruit is sold in the Balearic Islands with the remainder going to Germany. “Many tourists acquire a taste for it while on holiday,” adds Picó.

Nowadays, 98 per cent of all olive trees around the world grow in the Mediterranean region. In Mallorca, an area of 2 100 hectares [5 190 acres] are under olive cultivation. Three varieties in particular: Arbequina, Picual and Mallorquina, also called Empeltre. Mallorcan oil producers have joined together and marketed their products with the designation of origin – ‘Denominación de Origen Oli de Mallorca’. These oils are so-called extra virgin oils. “This oil must not exceed a certain acidity content”, explains Josep Oliver Timoner, who grows olives between Deià and Sóller. “And that lies around 0.8 per cent. However, this is no problem if the olives are harvested at the right time.”

The oils are placed on the market with the additional designation of ‘frutado’ and ‘dulce’. What then is the difference? “The oils that are termed fruity are derived from green - and still not fully matured - olives. This reveals itself later in the aroma: it is somewhat bitter and has a piquant note. The colour is yellowish-green”, says Oliver Timoner. “The sweet oil ‘dulce’, on the other hand, contains no bitter nuances, it is velvety and with a straw or golden-yellow colour. For this, the ripe dark olives are used.”

Olive oil is considered to have a positive health-giving effect, cold-pressed olive oil has a high content of mono- and polyunsaturated fatty acids. This is considered to help protect from cardiovascular diseases, lowers the blood cholesterol level, reduces the risk of thrombosis and has an anti-hypertensive effect.