Georgia may be best known for peaches and peanuts. But olives were once a homegrown commodity along the state’s 100-mile coast. They were introduced by Spanish settlers who planted olive trees at missions established in southeast Georgia in the 1590s.
A South Carolina chef said the freshness of the oil gave it a richness that imported olive oil, because of its age, doesn’t have.
Now, after more than a century, one family farm is growing an olive oil business in southwest Georgia, projecting 30 times the size of this year’s harvest within four years.
(READ the story from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution)