The Olive.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 866, 5 October 1888, Page 5

The Olive.

(phe olive has important qualities to recommend its use for the table—qualities which Bhould certainly secure for it there a more general friendliness than it now possos ses. One block—and we presume the only one—in the way, is that its taste is, at first, disagreeable to many people; bat the palate soon gets over the squeamishness and in a little time and with very little practice learns to take them with intense relish. But,, laying aside their palatableness, there is another consideration which has or ought to .have too strong a; claim upon our

gastronomic affections to be ignored; 1 allude to their wholeaomeness in spurring the digestive machinery whenever it is in. ciined to ba auywise sluggish. Therefore, let me say to the dyspeptic that if his taste does not now flourish for the olive, he should lose no time in oultivating it until it does ; for he will find hidden there, not only an amount of deliciousness he little dreams of, bat also more repairing and lubricating material for his weakened inner man, than in all the pills and medicinal draughts that were ever invented for the stomaoh to concoct. I would also Btate for his edification, that, in the south of Europe, where the olive is extensively used as an article of food, indi. gestion is scarcely ever heard of ; in fact, so little known that the word itself ba9 no comprehensible meaning. He must take this, however, as hearsay evidence, for I speak it not of my own knowledge. Still, from personal experience of the wholesome-, ness of the olive, 1 am prepared and willing to believe it myself, and it can work no serious injury for the dyspeptic to do likewise.—August Table Talk.