Olive Oil on a Daily Basis

OLIVE OIL AS FOOD

Olive oil had been essential for lighting as well as a basic dietary requirement since prehistoric times. Its uses in cooking were extended during the classical period. Olive oil was essential in cooking cereal crops, vegetables and pulses as it still is today in traditional Greek cuisine, especially in the areas where olive trees are abundant. Olive oil, which is to be used for cooking purposes, is always of a very high standard, obviously depending on the conditions of productions in every area. Farmers were used to consuming the olive oil without it being cooked, which is not such an unusual occurrence even today, either by pouring the oil on a traditional Greek dried rusts or by flavoring boiled greens and other binds of salads. The amounts of uncooked oil that were consumed were not small.

THE CRETAN OLIVE GROVE

From the third millennium B.C., Crete was an olive oil producing area. Since the climatic conditions of the island are ideal for the growth of the tree, the people turned their interest to the cultivation of olive trees, which was easy and profitable. The Cretans have never stopped cultivating their beloved tree. Even when other areas developed, such as Athens, and the island’s trade declined, Crete continued to produce large quantities of olive oil. It was used for food, as a manufacturing material in the production of scented oil and as an industrial material on its own. It was olive oil which lit public and private buildings.