1. Olive is a kind of fruit that can be eaten raw or processed. It is a famous subtropical fruit tree. Olives help digestion. Chaozhou is the most widely distributed place of olives in China.
Olive cultivated in China mainly includes two cultivated species: white olive and black olive, and a few wild species are distributed in Yunnan and other places.
There are two kinds of olives: Olea europaea (Oleaceae), a plant of Oleaceae in Labiatae, which is native to the Mediterranean region and its fruit is mainly used to produce olive oil. Olive (Olive Family), a plant of the genus Olive of Sapindaceae, is native to southern China. Its fruit is mainly used as fruit, slightly bitter and sweet, slightly astringent and slightly sweet.
2. Morphological characteristics
Trees, 10-25(-35) meters high, DBH can reach 150 cm. Branchlets 5-6 mm thick, young parts are yellow-brown tomentose, and soon become glabrous; There are columnar vascular bundles around the pulp and some vascular bundles in the center. Stipules only exist in buds and are inserted on branches near the base of petiole. 3-6 pairs of leaflets, papery to leathery, lanceolate or ovoid (to ovoid), 6- 14 cm long and 2-5.5 cm wide, hairless or with scattered bristles on veins on the back, with tiny verrucous protrusions on the back; The tip gradually tapers to a sudden narrowing and tapering, and the tip is about 2 cm long and obtuse; Base cuneate to rounded, oblique, entire; Lateral veins 12- 16 pairs, with developed midvein.
Inflorescence axillary, slightly tomentose to glabrous; The male inflorescence is a cymose panicle, long 15-30 cm, with many flowers; The female inflorescence is a raceme, 3-6 cm long, with fewer than 12 flowers. Flowers are sparsely villous to hairless, the male flowers are 5.5-8 mm long and the female flowers are about 7 mm long; Calyx is 2.5-3 mm long, with 3 shallow teeth on the male flower and nearly truncated on the female flower; Stamens 6, glabrous, filaments more than 1/2 (several full-length female flowers); The male flower disk is spherical to cylindrical, with a height of 1- 1.5 mm, slightly 6-lobed, with or without holes in the center and a little bristles on the upper part; The female flower is annular, slightly with 3 wavy teeth, high 1 mm, thick and fleshy, and sparse inside. Pistil densely pubescent; Small or lacking male flowers.
The fruiting sequence is1.5-15cm, and there are 1-6 fruits. The fruit calyx is flat, with a diameter of 0.5 cm, and the calyx teeth are bent outward. The fruit is ovoid to spindle-shaped, nearly round, 2.5-3.5 cm long, hairless, and yellow-green when mature; Exocarp is thick and wrinkled when dry; The stone is gradually pointed, the cross section is round to hexagonal, there is a shallow groove between the blunt edge and the nuclear cover, and the nuclear cover has a slightly convex middle edge, and the outer side is shallow; Nuclear cover thickness 1.5-2(-3) mm. Seeds 1-2, sterile room slightly degraded. The flowering period is April-May, and the fruit ripens in February.
Step 3 distribute
Olives are native to China and can be eaten raw or processed. It is a famous subtropical fruit tree. Olive is a specialty of Chaozhou, Fuzhou, which was listed as a tribute as early as the Tang Dynasty. The first time I ate Fuzhou olives, I felt bitter and astringent. After the aftertaste, I felt fragrant and sweet. Fuzhou olive producing areas are mainly distributed on both sides of the lower reaches of Minjiang River, with Minhou and Minqing counties producing the most. Fujian is the province with the largest distribution of olives in China, and it is also cultivated in Guangdong, Guangxi, Taiwan Province, Sichuan, Zhejiang and other provinces.
According to statistics, there are more than 200,000 mu of olive planting area and 50,000 mu of olive picking area in Fujian Province alone, but the output is more than 20,000 tons, with an average yield of less than 400 kilograms per mu, which is still far behind that of citrus, loquat and longan. Olive cultivated in China mainly includes two cultivated species: white olive and black olive, and a few wild species are distributed in Yunnan and other places. Olive has a cultivation history of more than 2000 years. After long-term natural and artificial selection and domestication, countless genetic resources have been formed. Most of the existing varieties are farm varieties bred by seedling groups, and their offspring have great variation, many intermediate characters and extremely rich variety resources. The Fruit Tree Research Institute of Fujian Academy of Agricultural Sciences conducted a preliminary investigation on the germplasm resources of main olive producing areas such as Minqing, Minhou, Putian, Xianyou and Fuan, and found some important germplasm resources with specificity, such as "Four Seasons Olive".
Olives are rich in calcium and vitamin C, and China is the country that cultivates olives the most in the world. They are mainly distributed in Fujian, Chaozhou and Guangdong, followed by Guangxi and Taiwan Province, as well as Sichuan, Yunnan and southern Zhejiang. The countries that grow olives in the world are Vietnam, Thailand, Laos, Myanmar, Philippines, India and Malaysia.
4. Introduction of how to eat
Olives can't be eaten directly, they must be soaked before they can be eaten (this sentence is wrong, people in Chaoshan area eat olives directly. Fujian also has the habit of eating green olives, but more people like to break fresh olives and soak them in salt water. Olives are very important in western cooking. They can be used to make salads and cook many special dishes, including olive sauce, pizza, beef scallops, beef zygotes and ducks. Olives are very popular in Spanish cuisine. In addition, olive can extract aromatic essential oil.
deep-fry
Different from herb oil, olive oil has antioxidant properties and high content of unsaturated fatty acids, so it can keep its chemical structure stable at high temperature. When ordinary edible oil is used, when the oil temperature exceeds the smoke point, the chemical structure of the oil will change, resulting in carcinogens. The smoke point of olive oil is between 240 and 270 degrees Celsius, which is much higher than that of other common edible oils. Therefore, olive oil can be used repeatedly without deterioration, and it is the most suitable oil for frying.
Barbecue torture
Olive oil is also suitable for burning, roasting, frying and boiling. When cooking with olive oil, the food will give off an attractive fragrance, which makes people drool. It is especially recommended to use olive oil for fried rice with eggs or barbecue.
Sauces and condiments
The purpose of using sauce is to bring out the taste of food, not to cover it up. Olive oil is the best oil in cold sauce and hot sauce, which can protect the color of fresh sauce.
pickled vegetables
Pickling with olive oil before cooking can increase the delicacy of food and set off other spices to enrich the taste.
Direct use
Using extra virgin olive oil directly will give full play to the characteristics of dishes. You can use olive oil like salt, because extra virgin olive oil will make the dishes richer and more delicious. Extra virgin olive oil can also be added to any dish to balance foods with high acidity, such as lemon juice, wine vinegar, wine and tomatoes. It can also make the flavors of various spices in food more harmonious. If you add some olive oil to a spicy dish, you will find it tastes better. Extra virgin olive oil can also make food more fragrant, smoother and more mellow.
toast
Olive oil is also suitable for baking bread and desserts. Olive oil tastes much better than cream and can be widely used in any dessert and bread.
cook
Pour a spoonful of olive oil when cooking to make the rice more fragrant and full of particles.
Olive tea
Take two olives and 1g green tea. Cut olive seeds in half, put them in a cup with green tea, pour them into boiling water, cover them and simmer for 5 minutes before drinking.