Ford On Food

My first taste of olives was on vacation, as a young teenager.Shortly after taking off from Bahrain Airport, I was served lunch of assorted cheese, Middle Eastern style meats and (in my youthful ignorance) what I thought was a couple of black grapes.The grapes happened to be black olives and with revulsion I impulsively spat one out and it landed at the feet of an airline steward.Embarrassed, I cried out, “There’s something wrong with that grape”, only to have the steward laugh at me.These days, olives happen to be one of my favorite foods – it’s astounding how your tastes change and develop with age.Olives are the fruit from the evergreen olive tree, are available in two main colours – black and greenThey have been cultivated for thousands of years, but their country of origin is subjective, although they have a noble heritage with the Middle East and the Mediterranean.Egyptian mummies have been found with olive branches around them.Olive oil was burned to light up Roman lanterns.Most of the olive’s history