National Olive Day

Amin / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)

June 1st is National Olive Day in the United States.

The olive is the fruit of the olive tree, a species of small tree found in the Mediterranean Basin. Olives come in a number of varieties and colours and have a range of food uses. One such use is in olive oil, an oil extracted from olives. This is the use for the majority of olives harvested; the remainder are classed as table olives. Olives are an essential part of Mediterranean cuisine and have various symbolic uses as well.

Table olives have three main types. Green olives are unripe, semi-ripe olives are picked as they are just starting to ripen and black olives are fully ripe. There can be colour variations within the different classes of olive. Most olives are cured or fermented to make them taste better, and are often stoned and stuffed with other ingredients; cheese being a favourite.