I belong to that generation whose first experience of olive oil came from a small bottle bought at the chemist and used to moisten a nit comb used to search for the dreaded "things" alive in my hair.
Either way olive oil was not something to be spread on salads or as part of cooking in our house.
I came late to this wonder green/amber oil and embraced it with the enthusiasm a drowning man grabs a lump of wood in storm tossed sea.
All of which is an introduction to English Olive Oil, The Food Programme, BBC Radio 4 today.*
"With the price of olive oil soaring in the shops after drought disrupted production in Spain, Leyla Kazim looks into the English farms planting olive groves in the hope of bottling their own oil.
She meets a farmer in Essex who explains that English growing conditions are more suitable than you might think and discovers a producer in Cornwall who has already started pressing his own extra virgin olive oil. So will olive oil from Essex or Cornwall become the new English sparkling wine?
Dan Saladino reports from Sicily where hotter conditions due to climate change are presenting new challenges for growers.
Food historian Dr Annie Gray debunks some of the myths around olive oil consumption in England and Leyla learns the correct way to approach an oil-tasting from one of the country’s biggest suppliers.
Produced by Robin Markwell for BBC Audio in Bristol".
Location; BBC Radio 4
Picture; One from Italy, 2024, from the collection of Andrew Simpson
*English Olive Oil, The Food Programme, BBC Radio 4, https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002f00z
