Our new subject: researching report

This year we have a new subject which is named Researching Report. In this subject our teacher is Pablo, who's also our Biology teacher. In the first term we had to do a work about the olive trees, their main characteristics, its fruits, the places where they are located in Europe and Spain and also the extraction of the oil with the olive mill. In the second term we had to do some laboratory experiences. We have done soap with oil, we have extracted oil and we have determinated the glucides and the proteins.

It has been very interesting to write about this and to do experiments with olives.

Olive tree main characteristics

OLIVE TREE MAIN CHARACTERISTICS



The olive tree is a tree that belongs to botanical family Oleaceae, and in that family is the only kind with eateable fruit. The pricipal characterisitcs of the olive tree are:

- The leaves are dark for the bundle, with a characteristic sheen due to the existence of a thick cuticle and whitish for the back, simple, of lanceolate form and entire edges. Is a everlasting tree and his leaves are in the habit of living two or three years.

- The blossom is little.

- The trunk is thick and his bark is greyish.

- The fruit is the olive a small ovoid drupe of a very bitter taste, green yellowish color, oily flesh a time they have arrived to the maturity and with a bone that enclosses the seed.

Olive's characteristics

The Olives Anatomy

The olive fruit is boticanically classified as a drupe, it's similar to the peach. Inside the stone has one or two seeds. The olive has got a lot of oil content. They have a black colour and they will hang on the tree for several weeks till they fall off.

Olive's are diffeerent from the other drupes in their chemical composition by having a low concentration of sugars (12%), high oil content (30%) and with a strong taste.

It's component parts are : the epicarp or epidermis, the flesh and the endocarp which has a woody shell with the seeds in it.

The oil content as the general composition of the pulp is highly variable, and it depends on a lot of factors such as climate, soil, culture, systems, pruning, fertilizers, tree treatments and harvesting methods.

Harvest Methods

They are picked while they are still green but they have a full size. Mold is a problem for the fruit between picking and curing.

The different types of methods are:

-The sweep of the ground to pick the olives that fall down.

-You do an extension of nets or canvases around the olive.

-Retail-trode and milking of the tree.

-Pick up of the nets with the olives inside.

-separation of the leaves from the olives.

-The best of these methods is the milking: you can do it by hand or with rackets. The best of these methods is the milking ; you can do it by hand or with rackets. To obtain a high quality of oil, is very important to pick up the olive in the best moment of the ripeness, when the colour of the olive changes.

For ten years, it has been trying the vibrator skill but its emplyment is unlimited for the excessive corpulence of the olive trees.

Types of olives

-The Sicilian Style: It has a medium green colour; they are cured in salt brine and preserved with lactic acid.

-The Gaeta Style: It becomes from Italy, it's cured with dry-salt and then, they are rubbed with oil. They have a black colour and they are wrinkled, but surprisingly mild.

-The Nicoise Style: Its clour is brown to brown-green-black olive and it has the origin in france. It has a small size and it's very tasty.

-The Conservaela Style: Is the most important olive economically. It grows throughout the country from sea level up to altitudes of 600 meters. It has a oval-shaped size and a thin, elastic and resistant skin, and the pulp has a fine, consistent texture.

-The Calamata Style: Its name derives from the region surrounding the town of calamata in the southwest peloponese. This is the second most important variety. They are cylindro-conical, curved, showing a prominent tip at the end. Their skin is thin, elastic and has an intense black colour when it matures.

-The Chaldiki Style: It is wainly cultivated in the chalkiki region of northern Greece. They are more elongated.

Germination of the Olive seeds

To break the dormancy of the olive seeds:

1- Remove the bulb.

2- Excise the endocarb.

3- Put the seeds on a bed of 1 cm of fine moisted perlite and cover the seeds with 1/2 cm of fine granules of perlite.

4- Store the seeds in a glass or a plastic container and put them in the fridge.

5- They start to germinate in 4 weeks.

6- Transfer them into a germinating room and in an appropiate media (20 degrees).

7- In 2 weeks you will see the seeds coming out.

Different Recipes

Olives in Greek Sauce:
It's a mixture of olive oils, vinegar, leeks and salt.
Cream of olives:

For the recipe we need:

-A quarter of pearl onion

-Four Cups of chicken stock

-Two thousand grames of green olives

-Seven thousand grames of purple olives

-Two and a half cups of cream

-Two spoonfuls of oil -Salt and pepper

1- Chop the onion and beat with green olives for 3 minutes. add the chicken stock, the cream and salt and pepper and let it boil for 15 minutes till it reduces.

Preparation of the olives for the table: Cut the olives with a hammer or making cuts with a knife. Put the olives in a container ith clean water. in case of green olives change the water every 10 days. In case of black olives, every 7 days. Finally rinse them and open them with salty water. To leave them rest for 15 days in a fresh place. Finally serve them.

The olive tree in Europe

A 16% of the surface of culture of the olive tree of the world is in Spain. In reference to the world production 26% is from Spain, followed by Italy with 18% and from Greece with 15%.
In Italy, the most part of the production is destined to the production of oil. There, there are only more than 300 people that cultivate olive trees.
About the origin of the olive tree in Europe, the Phoenicians introduced the olive tree in Europe, concretly in Greece. From here it went on to Rome and to all its empire. For them, the olive tree, represented the strength

The olive tree in Spain

It's present in the most part of Spain. It's more important in the provinces of La Rioja, Lleida, Zaragoza, Tarragona, Baleares, Toledo, Ciudad Real, Badajoz, Jaén, Córdoba, Granada, Cádiz, Sevilla and Málaga. Only in Spain there are 260 types of olive trees. Among them they are: Picual: It suposses the 50% of the production in Spain and the 20% all over the world. It prevails in the South of Spain.

Cornicaba: It's the second in importance and third in production. It prevails in the center of Spain in the comunity of Castilla- La Mancha.
Hojiblanca: It suposses the 16% of the andaluz olive tree. It's used for olive and for oil.
Arbequina: it's in the Cataluña's and Aragon's zone. It is cultivated alone and partner to the vineyards.
Lechín of Sevilla: It's in the south of Spain in Andalucia.
Verdial of Badajoz: It extends from Badajoz to Portugal.
Verdial Velez-Málaga: In the south- east of Málaga.
Empeltre: It's common in Aragón, Islas Baleares and Logroño. It is characterized by the excellent quality of its oil.
Pinado: It centers in the south of Spain, especially in Córdoba. It is cultivated for the production of the olives.

Types of olive oil

Virgen olive oil: it can be only be called that if it has been obtained from using entirely mechanical of physical processes. They are either made with one variety of olive or with two or more different types.
Extra virgen olive oil: It has an acidity below 0.8 and is free from all sensory defects.
Olive oil: It has an acidity below 1 and it has a mild aroma, taste and colour.
Pomace oil or orujo: It is made using the solid residue left when th olive oil has been extracted from the fruit.
Virgen olive oil: It has an acidity below 2 and the flavour may have slight organoleptic defects.
Lampant oils: They are virgin oils not suitable for human consuption.