Al Saeed for Herbs & Spices: Palestinian Olive Oil
Written by Juno Chimera, in conversation with Said Isayed
Minnesota Integrative Health Studio owner, Said Isayed, is proudly offering limited quantities of Palestinian Extra Virgin Olive Oil straight from his family's olive tree groves in Al-Khalil (Hebron), Palestine. The olives are hand-picked from trees that have been in his family for generations, with some of the olive trees as old as 600 years!
Long ago, before many agricultural understandings and innovations, an olive tree would take about twenty years before it bore fruit. Many Palestinians would steward trees handed down to them generation after generation. As you may already know, olives and olive oil are a big part of Palestinian cuisine and represent connection to the land and their long and entwined lineage.
There’s an olive season in the fall, usually October or November, when kids take time off from school to collectively harvest the olives. After months of drought, the olives are harvested only after the first rainfall, both because doing so yields a juicier fruit, and because it washes the fruit prior to harvest, reducing the amount of allergens and dust in the air. It’s an intergenerational family- and community-centered event: the hand-picking of the olives, the cooking of a feast, the sharing of culture between young and old, families, neighbors, and friends. Olives are harvested only once a year. Said recollects, “One year they give a lot, and one year they give less. People know the cycles and they respect the trees, and give them time to recover. You never use machines to pick the olives, only by hand; and you never hit the trees–they get angry.”
For a long time, Israeli settlers would come and uproot the trees or burn them to try to sever indigenous ties to the land. “It’s a very emotional experience to have a tree in your family that your great grandfather planted, and then it’s gone–there’s no regard for history and the meaning of the olive trees. Colonizers want to change the terrain, the culture. They know how important the trees are to people, and they try to take that away from them.” Since 2000, Israeli authorities and settlers have uprooted more than three million olive trees. This is an act of psychological warfare as well as environmental warfare, and an attempt to erase the history and existence of Palestinians.
Much of the olive oil on the market is not from a single origin, meaning it’s coming from different places and being mixed together. Olive oil from each region has its own acidity, nutrients, and flavors, and when you mix them together, you not only dilute its integrity, but you also increase the chance of oxidation, losing even more of the benefits of the olive oil. Moreover, a lot of commercial olive oil is not from the first press–extra virgin–but rather the second or third press, containing a lot of skin and seeds, and becoming more of a seed oil, which is not as good for your health. Often, seed oils are further processed with added colors or flavors because seed oils go rancid faster, due to increased oxidation. Extra virgin olive oil is packed with good fats, high in omega-3’s fatty acids, antioxidants, vitamin E, vitamin K and potassium, beneficial for healthy cholesterol levels, the immune system, and for cardiovascular health.
This olive oil is simple, single origin, and extra virgin. Handpicked in Palestine, the olives are pressed at a community olive press, and shipped directly here. It is not your average olive oil, and honestly you shouldn’t use it as such. This is a finishing oil, a dipping oil, a drizzling oil, an oil to delight and impress your loved ones, not one to dump mindlessly into a hot pan. Once you taste this olive oil, you’ll question your whole past relationship with olive oil. In using this olive oil, you honor the lineage of the Palestinian people, the true stewards of the land and their precious olive trees.
