Preface: Our Olive Origin Story

April 11, 1787, Nice, France – letter from Thomas Jefferson to his friend and French military officer, the Marquis de Lafayette.

Our last few years have been spent “rambling through the fields and farms” in our quest to truly understand the link between olive cultivation, olive oil production, and olive chemistry. Our journey began in 2010 with a summer workshop in Turkey exploring “Zeytin” (Turkish for “The Olive”).

ZDN: I was so excited and inspired by the idea of a liberal arts approach to education, which I understood to be holistic and interdisciplinary learning with praxis that must be in perfect harmony with the cultural character of learners in a community. I reasoned this could lead to a better future in a better society. I felt compelled to find out if now, or at any point in history, such an approach existed in my country (I felt certain it had to) and to build a community of scholars (not just chemists) who could create a modern version of it. With this idea, I started to contact scholars of the highest caliber from around the world. The natural first step was to bring some of them together and create an example. I chose Yeni Foça, which I considered to be my hometown, as the pilot workshop location. Of course, I anticipated the invisible cultural barriers that would inhibit conversation among people from diverse backgrounds. What could be a topic that is near and dear to almost everyone on earth? It turns out the perfect answer to this question is … The Olive! I was exhilarated to see how much enthusiasm this idea brought to everyone and the community of people it brought together. I named the endeavor Ege’de Atölye, for which O’Hara and Blatchly (among a few others) became advisors. The two, whom I admired, were naturally the first to be invited to the upcoming “Zeytin” workshop to create the olive centered chemistry module, which then grew into a journal article, (R. A. Blatchly, Z. Delen and P. B. O’Hara, Making Sense Of Olive Oil : Simple Experiments to Link Sensory Observations with Underlying Chemistry, J. Chem. Ed., 2014, DOI: 10.1021/ed300557r), courses taught at universities in Turkey and in the USA, two blogs (www.worldolivepress.blogspot.com and www.egedeatelye.blogspot.com), almost two dozen public talks, and now this book. Since then, Ege’de Atölye, too, continued to grow with more workshops, friends, and many other interesting projects. (New workshop invitations and a catalog of old ones are posted at www.egedeatolye.org) Despite the financial and professional sacrifices, it became the best occupation I could ever imagine, allowing me to maintain the perfect balance between independency from and belonging to academia.

From the perspective of Turkey, I think this book partially fulfills the original dream and therefore makes me incredibly proud. First, it is proof that scholarly learning is possible anywhere and can be fun without expensive facilities and highly paid faculty. It is possible to find wonderful faculty (explorers like POH and RB) who would be willing to participate voluntarily. Second, this is not just a book about olives or chemistry but hopefully it establishes a deeper connection between Turkey and the world by giving a glimpse of a Turkey different than what one usually sees in international media. Finally, nothing would make me happier if this book intrigued or inspired a few young Turks to innovate around the olive and other precious native products towards a brighter, self-sufficient future, both for themselves and the country.

POH and RAB: The chance to visit our friend and colleague in Turkey, and to both learn about and perhaps contribute to their educational system, was too good to pass up. As we explored the chemistry of olive oil, we were able to move past our initial impression of simplicity (it is, after all, mostly a rather simple mixture of triglycerides) and discover the unique chemical qualities that allow it to stand alone among edible oils. We were fortunate to be starting as the chemical story was coalescing in labs around the world, the world’s consumption was exploding, and the stories about fraud were making headlines (such as Tom Mueller’s book Extra Virginity). As we learned from producers in Turkey about the standards for extra virgin olive oil, about the bitterness and pungency of the best oils, about how the oil is produced, about the fraud, and about the amazing connection between human culture and the olive, we were inspired to learn more. Our background as educators inspired us to share the story with as many as we could. Since then, we have devoted significant time, including a year on sabbatical, to compile research, and to talk with cultivators, producers, and scientists. We could not have done this work without the extraordinary gifts of time we received from so many around the world.

ALL: The research world continues to (re)discover the health benefits of extra virgin olive oil, and it seems a week doesn’t go by without some new health claim or allegation of fraud. As we traveled and spoke to those not in the industry, people wanted to know what they could believe. We became convinced that the answer was to convey what makes olive oil so special from a chemical perspective, and then make the connection to everyday use. We dedicated ourselves to reading through the many claims about health or the uses of olive oil and translating them into plainer language. The more we did this, the more grateful our audiences and the more we were urged to write this up to share with others. At the same time, the farmers and millers we met were eager to share their knowledge and passion about the olive and curious to understand the links between quality extra virgin olive oil and chemistry.

The decision to write this book was made in yet another rental car on our way to yet another olive growing town – this one, Kritsa, on the island of Crete in 2014. We realized that along the way something had happened to us that is true of many people who begin an inquiry into olives, olive oil, or olive trees. We had become true disciples of the olive that holds so many truths under its spreading branches and unique fruit.