Olea europaea Bouteillan Olive Tree

The Bouteillan Olive is an ancient variety. It is a vigorous variety with a quick fruiting. It produces ovoid, fleshy olives that ripen from green to black. The Bouteillan Olive is not self-fertile. Hardy, it has good resistance to cold and drought. Harvest takes place in October for green olives, and in November for oil and black olives. The later the harvest, the higher the oil yield will be. The produced oil has a green fruity taste with hints of pear and hay.

The expansion of the olive tree is linked to the establishment of the Mediterranean climate: this is the major constraint for its cultivation. The domestication of the olive tree is believed to have taken place six millennia ago. Olive trees are long-lived trees. The oldest olive tree in the world is now 3000 years old. The Bouteillan Olive originates from Var, in the Aups region of France.

The olive tree is a highly branched tree with a knotty trunk, hard and dense wood, and a cracked brown bark.
The leaves are elongated ovals, carried by a short petiole, quite hard, entire, rolled-up on the edges, dark green and shiny on the upper side, and light green and silvery with a prominent midrib on the lower side. The foliage is evergreen, always green, but that doesn't mean its leaves are immortal: they are constantly renewed.
The small white flowers are grouped in small clusters of 10 to 20, growing in the axils of the leaves in April-May, on the wood of the previous year. The Olive Bouteillan is not self-fertile. The presence of pollinating companions is necessary. Verdale de l'Hérault, Cayon, and Grossane are the most suitable.
The olives produced are ovoid, fleshy fruits that ripen from green to black. Their oil has a green fruity taste with hints of pear and hay.

Green olives are not consumed straight from the tree. They must first be prepared to remove any bitterness. There are many methods for preserving these green table olives. They are all based on the same principle, in 3 steps. 1/ Removing the bitterness with a caustic soda bath (a quick solution), or an ash lye, a more traditional and slower method. 2/ Rinsing. 3/ Brining with or without fermentation. For black olives, removing the bitterness is not necessary.

Table olives are consumed once prepared. They can also be used to produce olive oil.