Olive O’clock time
Olive harvest is taking place all over the country. Many olive groves are already harvested, especially in the warmer southern and western regions, while others still wait for the right time to pick the precious fruit, full of flavor and sublime oil. The olive diversity in Türkiye is very rich, so it is a good time to look at our wide range of olive varieties. Firstly, we have to mention the “Delice” variety, which is the wild variety that grows all over the Aegean region and can be grafted to produce other varieties indigenous to Anatolia. “Delice” means “Madly” or “Crazily” in English, which I find the most appropriate term for this millennia-old variety that grows all around the Aegean landscape crazily despite all odds, and has an insanely delightful taste, but must be mad to dwell an olive oil business on the variety as the yield is minimal due to its tiny olives.
Fortunately, we are blessed with 89 varieties of olive varieties, but such abundance comes with its challenges. Türkiye might be very rich in olives, but there are many factors that threaten the olive culture. Are we going to able to preserve and sustain all our good old varieties against threats? And threats are huge, ranging from competitive market conditions and high production costs, and there are also new foreign varieties that are introduced to the country in hopes of lower costs with machine-operated harvest possibilities, which by the way, might not be appropriate for certain landscape conditions, and of course the biggest of all, the global problem of climate change.
Mediterranean olive scene
Olives and olive oil are among the most important products of the Mediterranean countries. Türkiye is one of the most important producers in the global olive oil market. According to the International Olive Oil Council (IOC), Spain is by far the leading producer. Italy, though far behind, is the country that makes the most benefit from olive oil, selling to the world market more olive oil than they actually produce, apparently buying bulk from other countries and selling under Italian brand names labeling as “bottled in Italy,” a legally passable, but ethically controversial condition. Well, to admit, Italians do produce exceptionally high-quality olive oils in regard to taste and flavor, but they secretly keep those for their own fine-dining consumption or otherwise sell at exorbitant prices around the globe for aficionados.
Looking at the other olive-growing countries in the Mediterranean, we used to be behind Greece in production, but now we are in third place. This year is the abundance year in the olive cycle in terms of yield, so we might even surpass Italy in production. Tunisia and Syria are usually competitive producers, in the past, there have been years that they were ahead of Türkiye, but Syria has fallen behind for obvious reasons, and a significant part of Tunisian production is in the hands of Italians. Lebanon and Palestine are practically out of the play, again for very obvious reasons known to the world. The production of countries such as Portugal, Morocco and Algeria lags far behind, while some countries with a Mediterranean coastline, such as France, Croatia, Slovenia and Albania, are barely self-sufficient, in the case of France, interestingly olive oil is only significant in Provence cuisine.
Although olives and olive oil are used in the cuisine of all these Mediterranean countries, none of them have a special category of dishes that are dedicated to only olive oil as we have. What we call “zeytinyağlı” dishes mean simply “with olive oil” pointing to the cooking method where vegetables or legumes are braised in olive oil, with an initial sautéing of onions and sometimes garlic, and all ingredients are slowly simmered until all the liquid is reduced to almost none, down to a very tasty emulsion of olive oil and cooking juices. Unfortunately, though this category is essential to Turkish cookery, nowadays, with high costs, sun-flower oil usually replaces olive oil. Nevertheless, olives are omnipresent in the Turkish table, foremost in breakfast, no Turkish breakfast spread is complete without cured olives, a habit we have that sometimes appalls strangers.
Olive Groves as Cultural Landscape
In the past few weeks, I have been to two olive geographies that can be described as a sea of olives. I was invited to the “FestOlive Edremit - Olive Oil Tasting Festival” in the upper Aegean region of Türkiye, which is the foremost producer of olives in the country. Organized under the leadership of Ahmet Çetin, chairman of the executive board of the Edremit Chamber of Commerce, the event prioritized olive oil tasting. My talk was on “Olive Landscapes as Cultural Heritage” a topic that combines my two professions as conservation architect and food writer. Our olive varieties and olive groves are an asset of our heritage. As a matter of fact, UNESCO included Türkiye’s traditional olive cultivation in the ‘UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage List’ a year ago and recorded it as “Traditional Knowledge, Methods and Practices Concerning Olive Cultivation in Türkiye” covering all the olive growing regions of the country. The Intangible Cultural Heritage List comprises non-structural cultural heritage items such as gastronomy, music, folk dances, handicrafts and artisanal products that are passed down from generation to generation. Türkiye’s application for the olive culture is the first and only item in regard to olives which reinforces our protection of olive landscapes.
After Edremit, I traveled to Kilis, invited by the project “Heritage: Kilis!” an initiative of the Ni-Ce winery that revives viticulture in the region. Kilis is a town located a few kilometers north of the Syrian border in southeastern Türkiye. A geography quite different from the Aegean coast, we passed through olive groves stretching from Gaziantep to the Syrian border and beyond along the Barack plain. According to Archaeological findings, the origin of olives is Mesopotamia, which is defined as the Fertile Crescent. The excavations of Oylum Höyük, right next to Kilis, revealed very early traces of an olive culture here, among the findings were olive pits in terracotta bowls from the Middle Bronze Age dating back to 1800-1700 BC. According to the information given by Professor Dr. Atilla Engin, the head of excavations, Oylum Höyük has been a continuous settlement for ages, which means that there have been olives here for about four thousand years.
As a country that dwells upon landscapes that can be defined as the cradle of olives, we need to safeguard our olive culture. We are lucky to have such a wide variety of choices in regard to olives. I always insist every chef should have an olive oil palette like a painter’s palette. Now, we need to talk about olive oil-food pairing, we need to talk about which dish will go well with which olive oil. As a matter of fact, we already have that taste legacy. We unconsciously paid our olive oils with our regional dishes. The muscular strong Kilis oil harmonizes with the strong spicy dishes of Kilis, while the fresh fruity Edremit variety has a natural affinity with the North Aegean cuisine laden with foraged greens, fish and seafood. Time is clicking in Olive O’Clock time. Now it is time to give the rightful value to this immense heritage and safeguard the olive patrimony!