The Green Gold our invaluable treasure

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Calabria is a region whose main products derive from its terrain thanks to its mild weather and the sun shining for most time of the year. Among its famous products there is the cultivation of the olive trees, whose fruits give us our treasure: the extra vergin olive oil, the so called GREEN GOLD!

The cultivation of this plant in Calabria go back to the 7th and 6th centuries BC during the Greek domination. In that time Calabria was one of the most important commercial centre for the distribution of the olive oil in the Mediterranean area.

The extra virgin olive oil has always played a central and significant role trough all civilizations and many legends are about its importance and its peculiarity. The most famous is the one about the diatribe about the hegemony on the region Attica and the city of Athens (whose name derives from the Goddess Athena) between Athena (the Goddess of Wisdom) and Poseidon (The God of the Sea). Zeus tried to solve the diatribe deciding to give the palm, as symbol of the victory, to whom had been able to generate the most precious and useful gift for the human being. So Poseidon created the horse while Athena the olive tree and its fruits. And she won.

So this plant has always been important and precious since the ancient times and still today its cultivation and production is common and widely spread all over the region.

Calabria  competes with Puglia  for the best olive oil in Italy each year. Among the most common and known DOP Calabrian types we can mention the Bruzio, Lametia, Alto Crotonese.

The olive oil is commonly used for seasoning our dishes, tasted raw or to prepare the numerous vegetables or other products in oil such as eggplants, mushrooms. Noteworthy is the famous hot olive oil, flavoured with the typical Calabrian hot chilli pepper.

It is also used to prepare soap or other cosmetics.

So we can say that it makes our recipes tasty and  makes us healthy and beautiful!

Place: Calabria
Impression & Feelings: Gastronomy
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