Nowadays, most of the olives we eat come from Spain or Italy. However, the origin of the olive tree is found in the Middle East, where it was common throughout the Mediterranean Sea in biblical times. Traders later introduced olive seeds and cuttings or shoots to Europe and North Africa.They never eat fresh olives from the tree. Fresh olives have a bitter taste, so they must be tanned in salt water or using other methods before they can be consumed.
The most important product of the olive tree is not the fruit itself, but its oil. The famous olive oil was so valuable in ancient times that people sometimes measured their wealth by the number of bottles of olive oil they owned.
Olive trees live so long that some trees that are still alive today may have produced olives in Christ's time!
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