L'Oulibo is a "Coopérative Oléïcole", an olive cooperative in the town of Cabezac. In the 1940s, a small group of producers, driven by the same passion, began building up the Oulibo cooperative. They joined forces to create a production centre for olives, olive oil and various products, a centre of learning, a museum and a visitors' boutique.
The olive tree is known as the King of Trees, the tree of the Mediterranean, and the Eternal tree. It dates back to Greek and Roman times and can't be destroyed: not by cutting it down, not by neglect, not by fire. It does not have a main trunk, but rather gnarled and twisted branches that grow directly out of its roots.
If left to grow wild, an olive tree grows to be enormous. As big as a house.
An olive tree must be trimmed yearly to keep it healthy and productive. Experts cut the centre branches in order to let the sun reach all the branches, even those deep down. If you were to look at a well-trimmed olive tree from the top, it is said you could see the heart of it, "le coeur de l'olivier", and the branches would hang like the healthy hair of a well-coiffed woman. Is it any wonder that the analogy continues with "combs" being used to harvest the olives.
Olive trees grow their branches one year and their fruit the next, alternating throughout their lives. The olive cannot be eaten off the tree, it being acrid and bitter. However, I just had to try it, so I sampled a tiny bit of the flesh and the bitterness lodged in the back of my throat. It reminded me of the naturopathic remedy called "Citricidal" (made from grapefruit seed) which is used for tummy upsets or mixed with water to wash skin sores.
Pollination of the olive tree does not happen with the help of bees, but rather with the help of the wind. One pollinating tree is needed for every 10 producing trees. If a farmer has not had the foresight of planting the pollinators, he must graft the trees. It's interesting to see a tree with two different types of olives on the same branch.
The process of making olives ready for consumption starts with the harvest of the fruit. France doesn't even show up as a blip on the graph of world producers. That honour would lie with Spain, Italy and Greece. Even smaller producers like Turkey, Morocco and other Mediterranean countries produce way more product than France. So France has specialized in gourmet table olives, which requires a very delicate way of harvesting.
A well-established olive tree with a good yield will keep a picker busy all day long picking the fruit off two (2) trees. He carries a pail molded to his belly shape and hung by suspenders, and picks the fruit one at a time, very delicately. He must avoid bruising at all costs. This gathering usually happens in September when the olives are green. The process is repeated a couple of months later, around November, when the olives have darkened. Green and black - same olive at different stages of ripeness.
Another way of harvesting the olives is with a small rake which is gently run through the branches. This is called "combing" the branches. There is a netting at the base of the tree that gathers all the olives that fall.
If the olives are not to be used as table olives but are to be pressed into oil or other olive products, care is not as important and quantity of yield is of the utmost importance. That is when netting is again spread under the tree and a machine is brought in to shake the tree, making all the olives fall into the netting.
There are places in the world, mostly some areas of Spain, where netting is spread and the fruit of the olive tree falls on its own, being very overripe. The quality is obviously not the best at this stage.
The wood from an olive tree is long-lasting and very cherished. Since the olive tree produces forever, there is never any need to cut it down for furniture. A small spoon or bowl costs 35 euros, so this bench is priceless. Its care? Simply rub it regularly with - what else - olive oil!
Once the olives are picked, they must be put in a "saumure" (a brine) to begin its process towards consumption. These barrels, with the fragile stickers, are this year's harvest bathing in its brine, waiting for the next step.
We watched a 15-minute video that went through the entire olive preparation process. The machine above is a conveyor belt with 4 workers standing on each side, sorting out any olives that have blemishes. This is done for the highly-prized table olives. (It reminded me of Lucille Ball and Ethyl in the chocolate factory, sorting out the chocolates and not being able to keep up! Episode of I Love Lucy.)
For olive oil, a less meticulous grading happens to remove leaves and other debris, then big granite wheels crush the olives, followed by the pressing of multiple woven bags (now synthetic) that separate the pulp from the oil, the clarification of the oil and finally its bottling.
We had a guided tour through the museum. The olive tree has been referenced in The Holy Bible (the dove returns with an olive branch when Noah wants to determine if the flooding has ended), the Talmud and the Koran. The tree was in the Med thousands of years BCE. We find it in literature (Homer's Odyssey), in art (Renoir and van Gogh), in sports (crowning of Olympic winners) and in politics (Caesar and Bonaparte had a penchant for wearing olive branch crowns). Cleopatra was the first one we know who used olive oil as a cosmetic and an anti-ageing product.
The time came to taste the olives. Like a degustation de vin, we were introduced to one fruit at a time so we could appreciate its texture, its aroma, and the taste memories it produced. Karl enjoyed the Lucques (looks like a smile) and I preferred the Picholine (plump and round), but both stood out as exceptional.
Then we tasted the olive oils, and as we followed our guide's instructions on how to appreciate a spoonful of each, we amazingly repeated the same process as when we taste wine. We looked at the colour, smelled it, tasted it, then swallowed to see how the back of our throat would feel. If there was a "catching" at the back of the throat, it was a good sign. This does not happen once the oil is mixed into a vinaigrette or served with other foods. The lighter oils should be served with delicate salads, whereas the more robust oil should be served with tomatoes and cheese that require a stronger taste. We could actually imagine and taste freshly cut grass with the stronger one, which was exactly what our guide was hoping we would discern.
Once the official guided tour was over, we wandered through the boutique to sample some more olive products. I'm trying out the various tapenades and can't make up my mind if I prefer the green, the orange or the back tapenade - I love them all! But I did find out that an olive paste is just that - olives that have been pressed and prepared for spreading. The tapenade has added anchovies and capers and spices. It really tastes like the Med!
There were varieties of soap, body oils, even honeys and biscuits on sale.
Products from the l'Oulibo are exported to specialty stores, like Trader Vic's in the States.
For a Prairie Girl now living on the Pacific Coast, with absolutely no knowledge of the olive tree, I found this day to be informative, educational, and definitely worth 6 euros. We came home with jars of Lucques and Picholine olives, and every lunch we are still trying to determine which is our favourite. I think we're allowed to have two favourites!
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