Interesting Facts about Picual Olives
Picual is a variety of olive native to Spain. It is the most popular commercial variety for olive oil due to its high oil content, 20-27%, and is said to account for a quarter of the world’s olive oil production. The name “Picual” comes from the Spanish root “pico” meaning “peak” which refers to the shape of the pointy tip of picual olives. Picual olives create an oil that is highly stable, meaning it resists oxidation at high temperatures. This is why extra virgin olive oil is the best oil to use for frying, baking and sautéing.
How We Use Our Picual Olives
At Green Olive at Red Hill, we grow Picual olives in our olive grove and cold press them to create extra virgin olive oil which we use in our grazing plates and body products, and which we sell on its own for visitors to take home. Cold pressing the olives allows us to extract the oil without damaging the antioxidants, creating healthy and flavourful olive oil to nourish family and friends.
The other varieties of olives that we grow are Frantoio, Leccino, Manzanilla and Kalamata, each labelled with coloured tags that are the same ones that were written by Sue’s grandfather, Cyril, when the olive grove was planted all those years ago. Check out the range of products we create using the goodness of our olive grove:
Read more about the benefits of Olive Leaf Tea for your overall health and wellbeing here.
