Aceituna

Where does the week go? It's Monday again. Was up early this morning. The holidays are over and the construction workers are not happy. As if to make a point, what would appear to be every item of pneumatic machinery crashed and bashed. It's not easy to attain Duende with the sound of drills and hammers ringing in your ears.

Factoid: Olive growing and the production of olive oil have been important in Spain and in the rest of the Mediterranean region for thousands of years. Spain is the world's largest cultivator of olives, producing 970,000 tons of olives annually. There are over 4.7 million acres of olive trees under cultivation with over 300 million trees. Spain is the number one producer of olive oil at 35% of world production, with 75% of that coming from Andalucia. Spain was the first country to establish a "Denominacion de Origin" for olive oils. The types of olives grown in Spain are the arbequina and verdial varieties of Catalonia, and the hojiblanca, piqual, cornicabra, and lechin varieties of the south. The piqual variety of the south accounts for 50% of all olive trees in Spain. The principal olive producing regions in Spain are Catalonia and Andalucia.