Discover Our Heritage: From Grove to Table
Since ancient times, the olive has been revered as one of the three sacred crops that are often mentioned together in the Old Testament and enumerated therein: grain, wine and oil. The Romans called the olive “the queen of trees”, the beauty of ancient olive trees, regal and powerful , typifies the scenery in the Galilee.
In our cherished groves near the Sea of Galilee, in the village of Rameh (الرامه - er-Rameh ), at 550m altitude reaching 50 Acres (200 Dunams) wide lays a pasture of +1000yr old olive trees. For centuries, Rameh has been famed for growing the richest, most spectacular olives, often referred to as “The Queen of Palestinian olive oil”, providing an even more unique and exquisite taste that cannot be found anywhere else in the world.
For millennia, our precious olive fruit, and the oil expressed from it has been an essential part of human existence. That oil was used for food, in cooking, for illumination, in the preparation of cosmetics for anointing the body, and in the practice of medicine. With this oil, kings and priests were blessed with this liquid gold.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture in 1910
For the past 160 years, the olive orchard has been cultivated by the Khalaf’s, a Palestinian Christian family that has deep roots in Rameh and takes great care in growing, cultivating and producing the most exquisite 100% beyond organic olive oil.
The moving of “Jesus trees” as referred to for years by the villagers
Our olives are harvested by November and early December, waiting for the olives to start blackening, this gives the oil a sweeter taste that’s divine.
The fruit which remains on the tree or falls off the sheets are left for the poor to come and collect them. “When thou beatest thine olive tree, thou shalt not go over the boughs again: it shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless and for the widow.”
The olives are grown without any artificial irrigation or fertilizers. The trees were never treated with chemicals, never watered! even the 2000+ years old ones. We call this Baal – pure organic as nature produces it. Ba’al is the name of the Canaanite god of fertility, weather, rain, wind, lightning and seasons.
All the olives are of the variety Souri coming from the city of Sour, or Tyre. Tyre was known for its great olives since ancient times. The legend says that an Olive tree of the goddess Ashtart rose there, protected by a curtain of Flames
