Olea europaea Cailletier - Olive tree

The Cailletier olive is an ancient variety originating from the Alpes Maritimes. It is a vigorous variety with rapid and regular fruiting. It produces medium-sized, elongated ovoid olives with rounded tops and flavourful pulp, which turn from green to black when ripe. The Cailletier olive is self-fertile, not very resistant to cold temperatures (-8 to -10°C (17.6 to 14°F)) and quite susceptible to diseases. Harvesting takes place in November for green olives, and from December to March for black olives and oil. The later the harvest, the milder the oil. It is one of the best varieties for natural olives.

The expansion of the olive tree is linked to the establishment of the Mediterranean climate, which is the major constraint for its cultivation. The domestication of the olive tree is believed to have taken place six millennia ago. Olive trees can live to be very old. The oldest olive tree in the world is now 3000 years old. The Cailletier olive originates from the Alpes Maritimes. It is registered in the COV. It is the only authorised species in the AOP Olives de Nice.

The olive tree is a very branchy tree with gnarled trunks, hard and dense wood, and brown, cracked bark.
The elongated oval leaves are carried by a short, fairly hard petiole. They are entire and toothed on the edges, shiny dark green on the upper surface, and light green-silver with a prominent midrib on the lower surface. The foliage is evergreen and the leaves are constantly renewed.
The small white flowers are grouped in small clusters of 10 to 20 in the axils of the leaves, in April-May, on the previous year's wood. The Cailletier olive tree is self-fertile.
It produces medium-sized, elongated ovoid olives with rounded tops and flavourful pulp, which turn from green to black when ripe. The extracted oil is of very good quality.

Green olives are not consumed directly from the tree. They must first be prepared to remove any bitterness. There are many methods for preserving these table olives. They are all based on the same principle, in 3 steps. 1/ Remove the bitterness, either with a caustic soda bath, a quick solution or with ash lye, a more traditional and slower method. 2/ Rinse. 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.