Beck Fsormann, age 13, of Las Vegas, Nev., for her question:
WHERE ARE MOST OF THE OLIVES GROWN?
Countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea grow most of the world’s olives. Italy and Spain together produce about three fifths of the world output.
Only a few places in the United States can support the olive industry. These placed lie in central and southern California. There are 32,000 acres of olive trees in California. There are about 13.5 million acres of cultivated olive trees in the world.
Each year about 8.5 million tons of olives are produced in the world. About 75,000 tons are produced in California.
Men grew olives even before they started to keep written history. At first they were grown only in the eastern Mediterranean basin. Then hundreds of years ago the tree escaped from cultivation and started to grow wild all around the Mediterranean sea. The olive tree was brought to California by the Spaniards in 1769.
The fruit of the olive tree matures from October to January, and is injured if the temperature falls below 26 degrees Fahrenheit. The fruit needs much heat during the summer and fall to have good quality when mature. The air must be dry when the flowers blossom and when the fruit starts to grow.
Olives abroad are grown first of all for their oil. In the United States, a large part of the industry is based on preparing the fruit for eating. 011 in America is a side line, but American olive oil is as good as the best imported oil.
Fifteen to 30 percent of the weight of the fresh fruit is oil.
Olive trees live longer than most other fruit trees. Some of the trees brought by the Spaniards to California are still alive. There are olive trees in Palestine which probably date back to the start of the Christian Era.
Most varieties of olives do not bear large crops one season after another. There is a slack season in between. This manner of growth is called alternate bearing.
The olive itself is called a drupe. This means its fruit has pits. The fruit is apple shaped to plum shaped and the ripe fruit is purple to black.
The olive tree has many small flowers. Most of the flowers are imperfect and fruit cannot grow from them. They give off much pollen and, as a rule, the wind carries the pollen from flower to flower.
In all the varieties of olive, a tree can fertilize its flowers with its own pollen. In occasional seasons there is evidence that the trees benefit if they receive pollen from other trees.
Fresh olives have a bitter substance which makes them unpleasant to eat. The fruit must be processed. The bitter substance must be removed if the olives are to be used for food.
Here are the 10 leading olive growing countries. They are listed in order of their importance: Italy, Spain, Greece, Turkey, Tunisia, Portugal, Morocco, Algeria, Syria and Libya.