Olive trees or shrubs are evergreen

and are native to the coastal areas of

the Mediterranean, Asia and Africa.

It is not a large tree and seldom grows

above fifteen metres, it is quite a short squat

tree but the trunk is generally

gnarled and twisted 

The bark has shades of brown and green and

the wood is golden on the outside with beige

heartwood, very dense and heavy with a

silken sheen to the inside of the logs

Our Olive firewood is from California

In the original Olympic Games, olive oil

was used to fuel the “eternal flame”,

leaves from the Olive tree were used as

crowns for the athletes in the Games

and were even found in

King Tutankhamun’s tomb

Olive trees can live to an amazing age –

on the island of Crete, one has been

calculated to be over 2,000 years old using

a tree ring analysis, and in Croatia a 1,600

year old tree is still producing about

30 kg of fruit per year!

To produce 50 gallons of oil

it takes a ton of olives

Pruning these trees plays an important

part in the production of the fruit, not only

to produce flowers but also to allow

easy gathering of the crop.

Quite often the crop from the old trees is

enormous but this does not happen every year.

California recorded the first planting of

olive tress around 1769 by Franciscan missionaries in San Diego – there

is about thirty five species altogether

and they are particularly prized for their oil.

For woodworkers it is highly valued -

because the wood is very hard, close-grained

and quite often veined with a darker

hue it makes spectacular pieces

Did you know … olives are the most

extensively cultivated fruit crop in the

world using up over 8.5 million hectares.

Telephone: 01555-880000

Mobile: 07858-933275

Email: info@druidswood.co.uk

Web Site by: Magnolia Osram

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