Shangsi Yellow Olives

Shangsi Yellow Olives

　　Yellow olives are also known as green olives. The fruit has an initially astringent but later sweet taste. Eaten raw, they can quench thirst, counteract gas poisoning, treat throat poisonings, or be processed into sweet olives, licorice olives, and other dried fruit products. Pounded olive fruits preserved in salted juice are especially effective for dislodging fish bones stuck in the throat.

　　(Fangchenggang)

　　Olives, also known as green fruit, get their name because they can be eaten fresh while still green. Olive fruit is rich in calcium and vitamin C, bringing great benefits to people. It is an evergreen tree native to China. “Peach trees bear fruit in three years, plum trees in four, and olive trees in seven” — olives take seven years of cultivation before bearing fruit, usually ripening around October each year. Young olive trees yield very little at first, producing only a few kilograms per tree, with significant increases only after 25 years, sometimes reaching over 500 kilograms. After each fruiting, olive trees typically produce less the following year, requiring a one- to two-year rest period. Hence, olive yields alternate between high and low years.

　　Olive trees are tall. When the fruit is nearly ripe, drive wooden nails into the tree and apply a bit of salt into the bark. Once mature, the olives will fall off on their own. Olives are excellent when eaten raw, and can be preserved for transport over long distances when honey-cured or salt-preserved. Olive branches that look like black lacquer give off a sharp, fragrant aroma when roasted, and this scent is referred to as “olive incense.”