Olive Oil Tours in Greece

Olive oil tours in Greece follow the olive from ancient trees to old village presses. They take place on the mainland and on islands such as Crete and Lesbos. Topics run from the Olive tree of Vouves and the sacred moriai of Attica to the kotinos wreath. Further sections turn to Panathenaic prize jars, Elaiochori, Agia Paraskevi, Krokees, Parakila and ladera dishes. Related reading covers Greece food tours, Greek food and Greece wine tours. Broader travel ideas across the country start at Greece tours.

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What are olive oil tours in Greece?

Olive oil tours in Greece take place in one of the three lands that lead world olive production. The other two are Spain and Italy. In 2018, Greece produced 1 million tons of olives, the fifth largest harvest in the world.

The tree behind olive oil tours in Greece reaches a height of about 10 m, with grey bark. Its leaves are oblong, which means longer than they are wide. They are grey-green on top and whitish underneath. Olive trees grow best on limestone slopes and rocky crags, and in coastal climates.

In botany, the science of plants, the olive fruit counts as a drupe. A drupe is a fleshy fruit around one hard stone, like a cherry or a peach. The oldest written Greek words for the olive are Mycenaean, from the late Bronze Age. They appear in Linear B, a script in which each sign stands for a syllable.

Olive oil tours in Greece centre on a crop that mostly ends up as oil. Of all harvested olives, about 80% are pressed into oil. The rest are preserved and eaten as table olives. Cultivars, the farmed varieties of a plant, split between oil types and eating types. The word oil itself once meant olive oil.

• Farms: Greek agriculture rests on small, family-owned units spread across the countryside.
• Drought: Olive trees cope well with dry spells, thanks to their sturdy and wide root systems.
• Regrowth: When an olive tree is cut down, new shoots called suckers rise from its stump.

Olive oil tours in Greece unfold in a country whose farming rests on a Mediterranean climate. The olive, an evergreen that keeps its leaves all year, grows in that kind of climate. Temperatures below minus 10 degrees Celsius can still injure a mature tree.

On olive oil tours in Greece, why does the Olive tree of Vouves matter?

Olive oil tours in Greece share their country with the Olive tree of Vouves. This tree grows in Ano Vouves, a village in the Chania regional unit of Crete. It is possibly one of the world’s oldest olive trees, and it still produces olives.

The exact age of the tree cannot be determined. Radioisotope dating, which measures how certain atoms break down, cannot be used on it. Its heartwood, the dense inner core of the trunk, has been lost over the centuries. No agreed scientific method yet exists for working out the age of olive trees.

The Vouves olive is possibly much younger than earlier estimates suggest. It is also possibly older than the ancient tree at Finix, in Sfakia. For olive oil tours in Greece, Finix holds a second Cretan olive of great age. Its age is claimed to exceed 2,000 years, based on archaeological evidence around it.

In October 2009, the Olive Tree Museum of Vouves opened in a 19th-century house close by. For olive oil tours in Greece, Ano Vouves sits within the municipal unit of Kolymvari. Such a unit forms a smaller division of a Greek municipality, or local council. Kolymvari has formed part of the Platanias municipality since 2011.

• Gonia: The historic Gonia Monastery, a home for monks, stands near the town of Kolymvari.
• Area: The Kolymvari municipal unit spreads over 149.99 square kilometres of land in all.
• Research: Current research questions how accurate earlier age estimates for olive trees really are.

Olive oil tours in Greece concern trees that stay productive for centuries when pruned correctly and regularly. Pruning means cutting back branches in a planned way. After extreme cold, the rootstock, or root base, can live on and push up fresh shoots.

Which story links olive oil tours in Greece to the sacred moriai of Attica?

Olive oil tours in Greece cover a land where certain ancient olive trees belonged to the state. These trees were called moriai, and their religious meaning made them public property. The singular of the word is moria. They grew across Attica, the region around Athens.

Not every olive in Attica was public. Private olives grew there too, beside the moriai. The state trees stood on public and private land alike. Their sacred status placed them under the direct care of the Areopagus, a high council of ancient Athens. Sacred means holy, or set apart for the gods.

The Areopagus arranged regular checks on the trees. Inspectors, officials who check rules, visited them once a month. Special commissioners, named for one set task, checked them once a year. For olive oil tours in Greece, the coins of Athens carried the olive too. Athenian tetradrachm coins, worth four drachmas, showed olive leaves beside the owl of Athena.

Ancient sources say twelve new trees were grown from Athena’s first olive. They were moved to the sanctuary of the hero Akademos and formed a sacred grove. A sanctuary means a sacred site, and a grove means a small stand of trees. For olive oil tours in Greece, moria possibly comes from a stem meaning to be part of.

• Property: In this sense, the moriai counted as part of the property of Athena herself.
• Wood: Olive wood served Greek builders as a material for houses and for boats.
• Athletes: Ancient Greek athletes rubbed olive oil into their toned and muscled bodies.

Olive oil tours in Greece revolve around a tree whose leaves once crowned athletes, generals and kings. The olives themselves were a valuable export throughout antiquity, the ancient past. Exports are goods sent abroad for sale.

How do olive oil tours in Greece connect with the kotinos wreath?

Olive oil tours in Greece sit in a land where an olive wreath once crowned athletes. Called the kotinos, this wreath was the prize for the winner at the ancient Olympic Games. A wreath means a circle woven from leaves and branches.

Cut branches first went to the temple of Hera. There they lay on a table made of gold and ivory. From there, the Hellanodikai, who judged the Games, made the wreaths and crowned the winners. For olive oil tours in Greece, Pausanias, an ancient travel writer, credits Heracles with this prize.

The ancient Games handed out no gold, silver or bronze medals. Each event had only one winner, crowned with leaves of wild olive. Aristophanes, a writer of comic plays, joked about this prize. In his play Plutus, he asked why Zeus crowned the winners with wild olive and not with gold.

Olive wreaths returned at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens. Olive oil tours in Greece run in the country that hosted those Games, which honoured the ancient custom. Wild olive wood was highly valued as well. It resists decay and shipworm, a sea animal that drills into timber. For that reason it suited shipbuilding and hand tools.

• Pruning: Theophrastus, an ancient plant writer, learned that pruning fails to turn wild olive into the farmed kind.
• Name: The modern plant group Cotinus takes its name from kotinos but is unrelated.
• Fruit: Wild olive trees bear smaller fruits, with thinner flesh, than farmed olive trees.

Olive oil tours in Greece belong to the land of these crowned winners. Their names formed the basis of chronology across the ancient world. Chronology is the ordering of past events by date. Timaeus arranged this system in his work, The Histories.

For olive oil tours in Greece, what does the Panathenaic amphora add?

Olive oil tours in Greece have an ancient prize jar in their story, the Panathenaic amphora. These large ceramic vessels held the olive oil given as prizes at the Panathenaic Games. The word amphora names a tall jar with a handle on each side.

Certain jars held ten imperial gallons, or 45 litres, and stood 60 to 70 cm high. Their form was distinctive, with tight handles, a narrow neck and narrow feet. Olive oil tours in Greece are held where the state of Athens once ordered these jars in bulk. It bought them from the leading pottery workshops of the day.

Painters used the black-figure technique long after that style had gone out of fashion. In that style, figures appear dark against the clay. Certain jars showed Athena Promachos, goddess of war, advancing between columns with a spear. For olive oil tours in Greece, the back of each vase showed the event it rewarded.

From about 350 BC onward, at least 1,450 such vases went to winners every four years. Later vases also named the archon of the year, a chief official of the city. That detail makes finds of these vases important for archaeologists. Victors’ families placed certain jars in tombs as grave goods, items buried with the dead.

• Roosters: Roosters sometimes perch on top of the columns, and their meaning remains a mystery.
• Survival: Only between 0.5% and 1% of these awarded vases still survive today.
• Spread: Other jars went to sanctuaries or were sold, which spread them across the Greek world.

For olive oil tours in Greece, the earliest known one is the Burgon vase in the British Museum. It shows the owl of Athena sitting on the neck of the vase. Its back shows a synoris, a team of two horses.

Within olive oil tours in Greece, where does the Olive and Oil Museum of Elaiochori fit?

Olive oil tours in Greece span a country with an olive museum at Elaiochori. This village lies in Eastern Macedonia, 25 km from the city of Kavala. Its museum is one of its kind in Eastern Macedonia and Thrace.

The museum opened in 2008 and covers a total area of 3,000 square metres. Its grounds hold a modern exhibition area, an event room and an open-air theatre. Trees have been planted in the open spaces all around it. Since 2011, the museum has belonged to the local council of Paggaio.

The museum is housed in the village’s old oil press, which began work in 1950. An oil press is a works where olives are crushed and squeezed for oil. The press helped the community and the western Kavala area to develop. The press was abandoned in 1970, and it was later rebuilt.

The museum aims to preserve the tools of traditional olive growing and oil making in the region. All its equipment is original, repaired and still able to work normally. For olive oil tours in Greece, its machines include the crusher and the press. A separate container then splits the olive oil away from the water.

• Office: For olive oil tours in Greece, the former office holds secateurs, nets and panniers, or large baskets.
• Storage: Millstones and demijohns, which are big bottles, served in pressing and storing the oil.
• Courtyard: In the courtyard, machines for sorting olives by size are on show.

Olive oil tours in Greece relate to a site whose old olive mill has been fully renovated. Its mechanical equipment was restored along with the building. Containers for collecting and storing olive oil stand in the courtyard as well.

Why is Agia Paraskevi on Lesbos a name for olive oil tours in Greece to know?

Olive oil tours in Greece are trips through a land of old oil presses. One stands in Agia Paraskevi, a village and former municipality on Lesbos. The village lies on the northeast shore of Kalloni Bay, in central Lesbos.

The oil press of Agia Paraskevi is a complex of stone-built buildings from 1910. It is a characteristic example of early 20th-century industrial architecture on Lesbos. At first it worked as both an oil press and a corn mill. A corn mill grinds grain into flour. Later, until 1967, it ran as a community business.

In 1984, with support from the regional authority of Lesbos, it was restored as a cultural centre. The central building became a multi-cultural hall with 400 seats. For olive oil tours in Greece, the oil storehouses were turned into a folk art museum. Folk art is the craft work of ordinary local people.

For olive oil tours in Greece, revenues from the town’s oil press funded the local school building. That school shows neoclassical architecture from the early 20th century. Neoclassical style copies the columns and balance of ancient Greek and Roman buildings. Its ground plan has a rectangular U shape, with exact symmetry at its openings.

• Name: The village is named after the Church of Agia Paraskevi, which is set inside a cave.
• Mansions: Agia Paraskevi is known for its old mansions, its architecture and its festivals.
• Nickname: Its agora, or market square, earns it the name Little Paris of the Aegean.

Olive oil tours in Greece operate in a country that reformed its local government in 2019. Since that reform, Agia Paraskevi has sat within West Lesvos, one of the island’s municipalities. In the 2021 census, the municipal unit had 2,230 residents.

In olive oil tours in Greece, how does Krokees in Laconia stand out?

Olive oil tours in Greece belong to a country where Krokees is famous for extra virgin olive oil. The village lies in Laconia, in the Peloponnese, and its farm cooperative makes this oil. Extra virgin names the top grade of olive oil.

For olive oil tours in Greece, this oil holds the status of a protected European Union brand. Its acidity is low, and its taste is described as exceptional. A cooperative is a business that its members own and run together. Since 2011, Krokees has been a unit within the Evrotas municipality.

Krokees lies south of Sparta, between the Taygetos and Parnon mountains. In 2021, the community of Krokees had 1,029 residents. In the Bronze Age, the Achaean and Pelasgian tribes lived there. Tribes were groups of families linked by shared descent. Around 1100 BC, the Dorians took over the town, with the rest of Laconia.

In antiquity, Krokees was famous for a forest-green volcanic stone with golden spots. This Krokean stone comes only from the Psiphi area of Krokees. It is very hard to shape, yet it decorated wealthy homes, pots and vases. For olive oil tours in Greece, the stone also adorned the Church of Saint Sophia in Constantinople.

• Dioskouri: The Dioskouri, the sons of Zeus, were the protectors of the ancient town of Krokeai.
• Carnival: The yearly Karnavali, a carnival first held in 1962, is well known across Greece.
• Poet: The Greek poet Nikiforos Vrettakos came from this small Laconian town.

Beyond olive oil tours in Greece, Krokean stone decorated public bathhouses, or shared baths, in Corinth. It reached the Church of Saint Paul in the Vatican as well. The Vatican is the base of the Pope and the centre of Catholic Christianity.

What do olive oil tours in Greece gain from Parakila on Lesbos?

Olive oil tours in Greece take their name from a crop that surrounds Parakila, a village on Lesbos. Orange orchards also ring the village, beside its extensive olive groves. In the 2021 census, the village had a population of 818.

Parakila rises in tiers on a low hillside, like the seats of a theatre. It sits between two rivers, the Taxiarchis and the Kardakis. For olive oil tours in Greece, the village lies 7 km west of Kalloni. The sea is about 4 km away, down a slope towards the Gulf of Kalloni.

The name possibly comes from the Greek phrase para tin koilada, meaning beside the valley. People from two abandoned settlements gathered on the hillside above that valley. The name first appears in writing as Parakella, in Genoese documents. Those papers date from the 14th and 15th centuries. Genoese means from Genoa, a sea power of medieval Italy.

For olive oil tours in Greece, Ottoman registers from 1548 show Parakila making olive oil. The same records list cereals, grapes and livestock products. At that time, 31 watermills were in operation there. A watermill uses flowing water to turn its grinding stones. Today the economy rests on olive growing, oranges, livestock and small-scale fishing.

• Alum: In the 15th century, Parakila was a key centre for alum, a mineral used in dyeing.
• Power: In the 1950s, villagers built a small hydroelectric plant that ran on local streams.
• Minaret: The minaret, or tower, of the former mosque ranks among the rare ones still standing on Lesbos.

Alongside olive oil tours in Greece, Parakila forms part of the Lesvos UNESCO Global Geopark. That geopark is recognised for the value of its rocks and nature. Eleven local women founded the Women’s Agricultural Cooperative of Parakila in 2001.

How do ladera dishes fit olive oil tours in Greece and Greek cooking?

Olive oil tours in Greece connect with ladera, a group of vegetable dishes cooked in olive oil. These dishes belong to Greek, Turkish and Arabic cooking alike. In all three languages, the name simply means with olive oil.

Ladera consist of vegetables, either plain or stuffed. They cook in a sauce of tomato, onion, garlic and olive oil. As a rule, they contain no meat. In the past, cooks turned to lemon juice when no tomatoes were in season. In season means ripe and on sale at that time of year.

Olive oil tours in Greece share their main subject, olive oil, with every one of these dishes. Cooks stew ladera on the stove top or bake them in the oven. They are served on their own, with feta cheese and bread. Potatoes, bulgur or pasta can join them instead. Bulgur is cracked wheat.

Ladera also serve as a side dish next to fish or meat. They are eaten warm or at room temperature. They are popular in the summer months. Ladera, linked by name to olive oil tours in Greece, are commonly eaten as a fasting food. Fasting here means giving up certain foods, such as meat, for religious reasons.

• Vegetables: Common choices include green beans, courgettes, okra, leeks and aubergines, all cooked in oil.
• Mix: A mixed vegetable dish of this kind is called tourlou in Greek, or briam.
• Rolls: Leaves rolled around a filling, known as sarma, belong to the same family.

For olive oil tours in Greece, stuffed vegetables known as dolma also count among the ladera. Another version cooks lemon with peas, artichokes, carrots and courgettes in olive oil. Artichokes are the edible flower buds of a thistle-like plant.

What do travellers ask about Olive oil tours in Greece, and what are the answers?

Olive oil tours in Greece focus on a product with ancient trade links. In the Minoan and Mycenaean periods, two Bronze Age eras, olive oil became a major export. One archaeologist has proposed that Mycenaean Greeks sent olive oil to Egypt as a diplomatic gift.

How old is the olive growing behind olive oil tours in Greece?

As early as 3000 BC, olives were grown commercially in Crete. Commercially means for sale, not only for home use. Olives were possibly the main source of wealth for the Minoan civilisation of Crete. Later, Solon of Athens made laws to control olive planting. His laws also promoted olive growing, above all for export.

On olive oil tours in Greece, how did a traditional olive press work?

Traditional presses had a crushing basin with a large millstone and an upper stone. The upper stone ground the olives and their pits into a pulp. A draft animal turned it, always blindfolded so that it did not get dizzy. The pulp then went into stacked frails, or woven baskets, under a stone weight.

Which notes by Theophrastus matter for olive oil tours in Greece?

Theophrastus, the leading pupil of Aristotle, wrote the Enquiry into Plants. That book is a founding text of botany. He gave 300 stadia, or 55.6 km, as the furthest distance from the sea for olive trees. He also taught that farmed olives must grow from cuttings, since pits give rise to wild olives.

For olive oil tours in Greece, which other villages are known for olive groves?

Elaionas, a village in the northern Peloponnese, is named after the Greek term for an olive grove. The name means the place where olives grow. The village stands on the Gulf of Corinth, 3 km west of Diakopto. Lakka, on the northern end of Paxos, is flanked by silver-green olive groves and cypress trees.