The story dates back to antiquity when all the islands of the Aegean Sea were dotted with wild olive trees belonging to the same species of the Olea europea that is cultivated today. Archaeologists have recently brought to light fossils of olive leaves carbon – dated back 50 – 60 thousand years. That is the beginning of the saga of olive tree cultivation and man’s attempt to understand, tame and benefit from this numinous and precious tree. It took many thousands of years of pain and eperience until man was able to tame the tree, gather its fruit and valuable juice (because that’s what olive oil is: the juice of the olive fruit). Another important discovery was made by an archaelogist who found in the area of Thermi in Lesvos a primitive Bronze Age oil press that dates back to 2800 – 2000 BC. This primitive oil press is a shallow stone basin in which the olives were crushed. Lesvos was then colonised by the Aeolians who had emigrated from central Greece, whose main occupation was farming. In the 11th c. BC the capital of Lesvos, Mythilene, was founded. From the 8th c. BC on there was a boom in commerce. Opening up to the outside world brought riches, new ideas and democracy replaced the aristocracy of landowners. Lesvos became the hub of arts and letters. One of the most outstanding poets of all time, Sappho (6th c. BC), came from Lesvos and in her poems one can discern the ideas of women’s liberation and get a sense of the idyllic, natural beauties of the island. The cultivation of the olive tree had at this time of course also spread to the rest of Greece where it was worshipped and where its branches crowned the winners of the Olympic Games. Cups of olive oil were the prize of the Panathinea Games. During these ancient times wine was Lesvos’ most celebrated product, but the cultivation of olive trees was steadily rising. Olive tree leaves are depicted on the coins of Mytilene and later, during the reign of Emperor Diocletian (3rd c. AD) property lists engraved on rocks make mention of olive grove estates built on terraces just as they are today. In the 3rd c. AD the olive groves of Lesvos were estimated at 45,000 km2. Many are the finds of ancient oil mill remains on the island. No one, however, quite seems to comprehend the relation between these ancient oil mills and the places of worship of later times. The chiselled stones of the ancient mills are usually discovered in the ruins of churchyards. Perhaps the olive tree across time has been sympolically identified with the divine, independent of current religious practices, be they paganistic or Christian. What is known is that the techniques and means for pressing the olive have remained virtually unchanged through the ages. There are two stages of processing. The first is the crushing of the olive with moving stones (millstones) which rotate on a fixed base. At first the millstones were lens-shaped, the outer surface being concave and the inner straight. They rotated in the groove of the basin on a wooden axle powered by domestic beasts or humans. Later the millstones became coneshaped with a hole in the middle and during the 19th c. Cylindrical. The second stage of processing, the pressing of the olive, did not change from the Mycaenean era up until the 20th century. The olive pulp is placed in horsehair bags, which are stacked on a stone plaque. A wooden screw on wooden beams is tightened and presses the bags, which the workers flush with hot water. Then the oil and the water separate and behold the oil!
January 10, 1850 was a significant date in the history of the olive tree of Lesvos. It was preceded by 40 days of rain and warm southerly winds. The olive trees were deceived into thinking spring had arrived. Suddenly that night, the thermometer dropped to -8o C. The warm and damp skin of the olive fruit frosted over and burst. The olive groves of Lesvos were completely destroyed. In addition, all the domestic animals died and the people were left helpless to face this catastrophe. The only solution for many was to emigrate. They went to foreign lands, worked and progressed, but they did not forget their homeland. Thus, many returned after making their fortunes elsewhere and infused new life into the veins of the wounded isle. The people who had remained threw themselves into the hard work that had to be done. They chopped down the destroyed trees and in makeshift kilns made charcoal which they sold all over the Mediterranean up to the shores of Russia. In the spring of 1850 green shoots sprouted from the few trees that had survived the frost, but there were no olives to be harvested and no oil to be pressed. It was then that they took the great decision of replanting all of Lesvos with new trees. They brought in new varieties, the “kolovi” and the “adramytiani”, which were more resilient to the cold. New fields were sown. They carried soil up the mountainsides on their backs and on the backs of their beasts of burden. Stonemasons from northern Greece arrived to build terraces on the sides of the mountains to hold the soil. The olive groves with their young, vital trees grew to be ten times bigger than the original ones, reaching a total of 450,000 km2. The 1850 catastrophe brought about the rebirth of the island and man repaid the olive tree for all it had offered him over the centuries. It was the beginning of a new age.
During the following decades the economy of Lesvos saw an upward swing and the island became a hub of social, political and cultural activity. There were many reasons for this: although one third of the land remained under the ownership of the Turks, cultivation was still in the hands of the Greeks. The high taxation was counterbalanced by the great output of the new olive trees that had been planted. Technological progress and steam engines had brought industrial growth. Modern steampowered oil mills quickly replaced the old oil mills that were powered by humans or domestic beasts. The procedure for crushing the olives remained unaltered but the time needed for this first stage of processing was greatly reduced and the yield much higher. The by – product of the olive, the pit, became a plentiful and cheap source of fuel and modern factories were built for the processing of the olive pit and the manufacture of oil – soap, which was highly valued at the time. The locals competed to see who would import the best quality machinery from England. Along with industry, commerce also saw its heyday, which was increased five-fold during the 1850 – 1910 period. Olive oil and olive soap were the main products, which amounted to 70% of the island’s exports. One third of the olive oil was exported to Marseilles and one fourth to England. Later when the local shipping lines were improved, Istanbul and other closer markets were established. Russia also absorbed significant percentages of the olive oil exports, which was used for lighting oil wicks in their churches. The Mytilene port became a great crossroads. At the time the Aegean Sea bustled with life. Greek and Turkish sailors went back and forth; workers from Mytilene commuted daily to Aivali on the opposite shore; the bourgeoisie, the merchants and the industrialists came and went. The flourishing of the economy brought about general prosperity. All the remnants of that era bear witness to the aristocratic background of the inhabitants of Mytilene: their fine taste and their love of art. Due to the commercial activity and the many successful immigrants, the urban society was highly cosmopolitan. Indicative of this is that all developed countries maintained consulates in Mytilene, which became a miniature European metropolis. With a population of only 17,000, the town was full of mansions furnished with imported European furnishings. The town sported eight churches, a hospital, four schools (one of which was French), two theatres, two cinemas, clubs, unions etc. Cars circulated in the streets, which were lit with gas lamps. The post was delivered through foreign postal services and there was a telegraph service. Large, luxurious hotels adorned the capital and there were the celebrated hot springs. There were six local newspapers and ten periodicals in circulation, which gave vent to the social and ideological concerns of the time. These concerns focused to a large degree on national independence, a feeling that had been simmering for 450 years and boiling over at the least provocation. One such case was the destructive earthquake of 1867 when the Greek inhabitants hailed the ship that brought aid by saying that they would suffer a thousand earthquakes and a thousand deaths to see the day the island would become part of Greece. This day would come in November 1912 when Lesbos would be liberated from Turkey and would cede to Greece. But the happiness of the inhabitants of Lesvos did not last long because it was hard hit by the 1922 Asia Minor Disaster when thousands of Greeks were forced to evacuate cities such as Smyrna and shiploads of destitute refugees arrived. The Great Depression of 1929 and the Great War followed. In any case Lesvos had become a remote province of the Greek State. The island was lacking in the most basic food staples and it attempted to cover these needs by exporting its famed olive oil, but at times exportation was forbidden and at other times bulk imports of cheap seed oils in the form of “aid” created unnecessary competition.
The Greek writer Thanasis Paraskevaidis once wrote: “The homeland is the olive tree you tended, that you grew with your own hands for your children’s sake, for the coming generations that will carry your name. You yourself are the olive tree.” The visitors are able to observe this deep connection everywhere on the island. Today Lesvos is searching for its own place in a complex web of relations that is forever changing. This is the era of globalisation, of intense competition, but the roads to its traditional markets (Turkey, Russia, Rumania and Egypt) are not as accessible as they used to be. This is one reason the French, the English and the German consuls and businessmen have ceased to assemble in Mytilene. The Olive Oil of Lesvos is protected by the Common Agricultural Policy of the European Union, yet the roads to New York, Melbourne or Tokyo are long and hard going. The island continues to be a small hidden paradise. The landscape retains the gentleness described by the foreign travellers of the 18th century. Fortunately, it has not undergone the modernisation that other resorts of the Aegean have. The silvery – green olive groves, both solemn and breezily friendly, stretch from the waves breaking on the shore up to the mountain pine trees. The terraced olive groves keep the whole ecosystem alive. If they are neglected, the depth of the topsoil is reduced from 30 to 5 cm, the vegetation from 47% to 28% and the plant species from 12 to six. The inhabitants resemble their friend the olive tree. They are open, friendly, proud and yet quick to laugh with a sharp sense of humour, possessing a free and inquisitive spirit. They have kept their traditions alive. The local dialect is not only spoken, but it transforms the conversation into a kind of celebration, especially if it is accompanied by a glass of ouzo and some appetisers or mezedes, as they are called. Even love is expressed through the olive tree in the lines of Elytis, “I saw his eyes. I saw some ancient olive groves.” In Lesvos women are still highly revered as they were in antiquity. Women are free and equal to men, bearing no comparison to the eastern model. This can be seen in the most minor details of everyday life. For example, a person’s first name is not followed by the father’s first name, as is the custom in the rest of Greece, but by the mother’s. Thus it is not “Stratis, the son of Christos” but, “Stratis, the son of Eleni.” Today the olive continues to be all the islanders’ main occupation as well as their main topic of conversation. “What will olive oil production be like this year?” is the question on everyone’s lips. The average annual production is approximately 20,000 tons, with quite severe fluctuations, however, depending on weather conditions. Eleven million olive trees cover 450 thousand km2, that is, 79% of the arable land and 28% of the total area of the island. These 11 million trees correspond to 87,000 inhabitants, which translates to 126 olive trees per inhabitant, which is a far higher ratio than can be found in any other place in the world. In the rest of Greece the ratio is 9.5 per person, in Italy 3.0 and in Spain 5.4. There is not a local of Mytilene, regardless of occupation, who does not also have some olive trees, even if they produce just enough oil for the family whose children are perhaps studying or who have married and moved to Athens. Indeed, emigration is one of the island’s greatest problems. The population has dwindled from 120,000 in the 1950s to 87,000 today. Another problem is that almost half the olive groves are located in mountainous or hilly regions, often far from roads. The only way to reach them is by donkey or on foot, making the gathering of the olives arduous and fatiguing, as they usually must be handpicked, aided only slightly by portable thrashing appliances. Of course this implies that the olive oil produced contains all the benefits of the most natural and pure agricultural product, but it costs more than oil extracted from expansive, flat olive tree groves, which allow for cultivating and gathering the olives with “industrialised” means. This can be confirmed by the types of fertilisers used. The traces of nitrogen per root in Lesvos does not exceed 100 gr., a quantity that is much lower than quantities measured in other types of groves. The same applies for pesticides and weed killers. Another feature that contributes to the high quality of the Olive Oil of Lesvos is the large number of modern oil presses and small – scale farmers. These two factors mean that the fruit is crushed immediately and that the owner of the olives, the farmer, is present when they are crushed and pressed and carefully watches over every stage of the procedure, ensuring the high quality of his / her oliver oil. Olive oil is no longer stored in barrels as it used to be. The network of co-operative oil mills, the union, as well as many of the privately owned oil mills have an adequate number of vats so that the oil is stored under optimal conditions after it is pressed. Special tank trucks transport the oil either to the packaging units on the island or to other units in the rest of Greece through dealers and merchants. Large quantities of olive oil are exported mainly to Italy and recently to Spain as well. The meaning and aim of establishing products with a Protected Designation of Origin or Geographical Indication could find no better application than in Lesbos. The particular quality of Lesvos’ Virgin Olive Oil is determined by the weather conditions, the grade of soil, the climate, and the olive tree varieties as well as by the human factor. It is an unbeatable combination that T. Paraskevaidis describes as follows: “From the tormented olive tree trunks springs the history of our island. The olive trees are laden with our own human voices.” For the outsider, but keen observer, this story signifies what Elytis tried to say…
«You will give me, the traveller, a place to stay
laying on the tablecloth bread,
olives and your conscience».
This text is an extract from the booklet «The olive oil of Lesvos» of Vassilis Zambounis, that was published by the Hellenic Foreign Trade Board in collaboration with the Chamber of Lesvos.