A NEW DESSERT FRUIT.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 47, 19 November 1907, Page 3

A NEW DESSERT FRUIT.

. If'a, certain enterprising woman in California: has her way, the time is. not far distant when;; Wellington grocers . will be stocking dried olives as they now stock dried figs ana raisins, and Wellington children on this new diet ..will become as plump and perhaps as olive-complejiioned as the little children of Italy and; Spain. It was an American man who-first introduced bananas to the markets °f ®e'.world, dnd now''Mrs. Mary.Ehmahn, of California, is creating a wide-spread demand for the hitherto little-known ripe fruit of the olive.' • ' A (little more than seven years ago, Mrs. Ehm'ann, who now controls tho olive market, decided to handle the products of her own olive, grove, and that- yes-r she prepared and shipped-to market 20 gallons of ripe olives and oil.' Last year the output had grown to 100,000 gallons, and. even with that amount it was impossible to fill-all-the-orders sent. Contrary :to the advice of her friends, Mrs. Ehmann stuck to the ripe fruit, refusing to handle a green olive. "The green olive," she flays, "is the same as any other green fruit, and while it tickles the palate, it is like'putting'so much leather in. one's stomach. I believe that it is only a question of time wiien the demand for the green fruit will cease altogether/ People are getting . moirb -and more inquisitive about their food and its effect on their -digestion. 'I wouldn't give green olives to a member of my family who dian t possess the digestive organs of-an ostrich; then why should I put th'em up and try to. induce the public to eat them? I believe in the healthfullness of the ripe fruit, and Have worked mydiardest to increase the trade. business is the 'result of : observation and hard work. In Spain and Italy ripe olives are dried and eaten as we eat dried figs, raisins and dates. ■ The soldiers • are fed on dried olives, .and the Bedouins malce them their principle food. -In fact, with tliem, dried olives. take: the place of meat, and certainly they-contajn quite as much; if not more nutriment. ■ By adding each year what r CO I or -' I have1 now- a factory 150 ft, by 300 ft., equipped with the most; modern machinery. ' "Of course my groves are much larger now than when .1 began...l . have .not onjy bought and leased many acres of good, healthy'oKve trees, but I buy, by contract mostly, all the npe olives m my neighbourhood. I do not know how long an olive tree will bear — certainly for a long time; I know of manv groves where_ the ' trees are • more- than 100 years old;, and''some where they are 300. Oh' yes, they .aro laden;with fruit every year,' and' "'ill live and bear as long again. .'.'There are usually from 60 to 100 trees to the"acre,.and in average years the owner of a grove should realise from £12 to £20 an acre., ,The price of olives, like'wheat, cotton, or; any; other produce, fluctuates. From one cause' or .another' they are more expensive s6m'eyears than-others. For a Californian investment; it seems to' me that ah olive grove is. Safer than oranges; However, I'm a wo l man with a hobby, and-yon know it is not oalay for me to see profits outside my own line of,-business."