Olive trees have been grown since Roman times and are specifically Mediterranean due to their bioclimatic needs.
On the southern foothills of Mont Ventoux, farmers grow Aglandau (or Verdale du Ventoux) for oil especially.
Depending on the extraction mode, time of harvest and variety, the millers offer a whole range of flavours. Discover a range of oils with tastes from green to ripe to dark fruity, all resulting from the traditional crushing process. Olive growers who have also diversified into agritourism will welcome you and gladly introduce you to the nutritional qualities of this pure fruit juice, such as mono-unsaturated fatty acids, and significant amounts of vitamins K and E.
Depending on varieties, green table olives are harvested from September onwards and black ones up until December or January. Olives are not just about ’tapenade’ and ’apéritif’ under the arbour, they are also part of the ’Cretan’ or ’Mediterranean’ diet. Ripe olives contain a significant amount of iron, copper and vitamin E.
Each family have their own recipe handed down and improved from generation to generation over millennia.
For the record, if a humorous resident offers you to sample an olive from the tree, you will be surprised by its bitterness, as it must be prepared in brine before consumption.
For a quality product, growers care for their trees in many different ways throughout the year: pruning, disease or pest monitoring, soil maintenance and harvesting. Harvesting takes place from late October to December. Growers knock olives down into nets on the ground using a comb.