THE JEWEL OF THE BAY / OLIVE AND OLIVE OIL

The World's finest olive oil is being produced mainly on the coast of Edremit Bay, on the outskirts of Mount Ida and mount Madra. In world olive oil literature, this region of Turkish Aegean Coast is known as one of the main " low acid-olive oil" production areas among the others. This disctrict provides the most appropriate climatic conditions for the growth of the olive trees and the high quality of the harvest: The outcome is the miraculous work of nature "Olive oil".

THE TYPES OF OLIVE OIL
It is possible to sort different types of olive oils that varies according to their odour, acidity, taste and the way that they are produced. Among all these types the best one is called "Natural/Extra Virgin olive oil".

Natural / Extra Virgin Olive oil is the oil which is produced by the ancient cold-press method. It is mainly consumed uncooked, with salads, boiled vegetables and sauces.
Another type is produced by refining the natural olive oil. "Refined olive oil " is obtained by applying special purifying procecesses to the types of oil with high-acid levels and with extreme pungent. This is also named as "Light olive oil" due to its relatively pale color and light odour.

The 3rd type is called "Riviera". Riviera is a special mixture of the refined and natural olive oil and is rather used in meals. It is mainly consumed in the countries where people are not accustomed to the taste of extra virgin olive oil.
Despite the common belief in last years, olive oil is ideal for fried food due to high burning point compared with the other edible oils. Besides, with the melting point which is between 5C-7C it is easy to digest.

Olive oil should be kept in a warm and dark storage where the temperature should be approximately 19 C.

OLIVE OIL IN HISTORY

"Just before his death, Adam begged God for the mercy oil and for this, charged his son. The son took three seeds from the goodness and badness tree which grows in heaven's gardens and put those in the sacred mouth of his father. Just after Adam was buried the seeds became green and from the grave grew the cedar, cypress and olive trees."

The affinity between the humans and the olive/olive trees is as old as the humanity.The archeologic findings show that olive has been consumed since 6000 B.C. In other words for the last 8000 years. Even in the most ancient written sources and documents, the usage of olives by humans has been mentioned frequently.

In the Holy Bible it is told that, a robbed and injured man's wounds were cured by using olive oil and wine. This is a proof of the usage of olive oil for the treatment of wounds and the burnts since old times.It is known, that during the mediveal times almost all the medicines contain olive oil.

Also in the tale of Noah Flood, it says that; after the storm diminishes, Noah sends the pigeon from his ship to the land to see if everything has settled. After a while the pigeon returns back with a fresh branch of olive tree in his mouth, which shows Noah that the world is back to normal life again. Since that time "Pigeon with an olive tree branch in the mouth" becomes the symbol of peace.

It is very common to come across oil tree related tales in mitology as well:
The founder and the guard of the city of Athens, Pallas Athena the goddess of wisdom, gained the right of being the goddess of this city by winning the competition which she undertook with Poseidon. In this competition, the Gods of Olympos were the judges and asked from each, a gift for the welfare of the humanity. Poseidon took a big and strong horse out of the earth and Athena an olive tree. The Gods found the olive tree much more useful for the humanity and therefore, Athena became the goddess of the city.

All these show us that, since ancient times, the olive and olive tree were not only the most used products of nature but also the sign of the welfare.

In 5 B.C. ancient Greeks were exporting olive oil to some Mediterranian countries . They were accepting the olive oil a sacred product such that the harvest could be reaped only by virgins. In the years 2500 B.C. the olive oil was holding a very important place in the trade life of Creteans as well. The large earthenware jars which were used for concealing olive oil are still kept in the palace of King Minos in Knossos.

Also the ancient Romans were able to produce different kinds of olive oils to use for different purposes like cooking, illumination, and baptism. It is known that the oldest olive oil production method was first found and used by Romans about 2000 years ago. This method is called "cold-press" method and still used for production of best olive oil ever known since that time.

OLIVE TREE-AS MIRACULOUS AS OLIVE

Although the growth of olive tree is very slow and troublesome it worths due to the long life it lives. According to records, in some regions there are olive trees which are older than 1000 years. Olive is a fruit that, 20-30 percent of its weight consists of oil. The olives which are growed for oil should become ripen on the tree before they are harvested. The olive harvest is good only every two years.

The historians estimate that the homeland of olive tree is Mezopotamia and it spreaded from this district to the rest of the world. In all the ancient written sources it is mentioned that all the Mezopotamia, Aegean and Mediterannion Regions are ornamented with olive trees. After the discovery of America the olive tree seedlings were took to this continent as well.

IDAKOY RANCH HOUSE NATURAL OLIVE OIL

For ages olive oil is used not only as food, but also as medicine, as cosmetics and etc. This great gift of nature-due to it is limited growing areas- could only be used by people who are lucky enough to live close to olive growing areas.

Being amongst those lucky people gave us the idea of sharing it with friends and other people that want to live a healty life.

This lead to the birth of "Idakoy Ranch House Natural Olive Oil".

Today, due to our bussiness being still infant plus our limited resources, we are able to supply our olive oil only a limited volume to a limited number of our customers but we are trying hard to extend our bussiness- especially by means of export.

In case of interest in our olive oil please do not hesitate to contact us.