February 7th, 2000

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with a spicy Mediterranean tang of garlic, olive oil and lavender, to
tempt you to visit sun-drenched SouthernFrance all year round !

The olive harvest is just coming to an end. Although we have had some frost this Christmas, it has been quite a good season for olives and the cooperative that presses the fruit into wonderful golden liquid for many producers throughout the Hérault area in Clermont l'Hérault has already processed 450 tons into a pure, exclusive (and rather expensive) olive oil ready for consumption.

The "huilerie coopérative de Clermont l'Hérault" has been in operation since 1920, sole survivor on a cooperative basis in this county over the years. The effect of severe frosts right back in 1956 was devastating for the production of olives and olive oil here and it seems producers are only now getting over it. A total 600 tons of olives were processed for oil in 1998 at Clermont l'Hérault and this year the harvest will again be considered an excellent one. Christmas oil is a tradition down here, but also the fruit itself and many varieties are to be found here - Clermontaise, Olivière, Amellau, Verdales de l'Hérault, Ménudal, Mouflal, Picholine, Rougette. However, to my mind " Lucques " are the best local speciality and undoubtedly the queen of all olives. This year's production is now on sale.

So you have never heard of Lucques ? For those who think an olive is just a nasty black currant on top of a frozen pizza, there is much to be discovered. In all Mediterranean countries olive trees are part of the landscape and many varieties are cultivated all over. But to my knowledge, and to every proud and chauvinistic Frenchman born and bred in the Hérault area, the Lucque variety is only cultivated in this small part of the world (although there are some grown nowadays in the neighbouring county, Aude).

Why is it so special ? Firstly just look at it - quite a large olive with a shiny green skin , slightly crescent shaped rounded and juicy. The taste is incomparable - a subtle nutty flavour behind the sharp tang typical of this mediterranean fruit. Connoisseurs will tell you that it is not necessary to disguise the Lucque variety with herbs, garlic or vinegar. They are simply preserved in brine, to be rinsed and served unaccompanied at the last minute. That is in fact the difficulty with this variety. If you leave the olives unprotected by a brine solution for too long, they turn a nasty shade of brown. Also, the liquid itself deteriorates quite quickly.

Up until recently it was almost impossible to market this variety far from its place of production. Over the years, various " confiseurs " have thought up different ways of preserving the olive for local consumption throughout the year and even export but not with great success. In a sense, the people down here are not that keen on exporting Lucques anyway. They are quite happy to keep them for themselves, doling them out generously at the numerous municipal functions throughout the small villages and towns of the area with Pastis or more typically, a local white wine - "Picpoul de Pinet" or the sweet "Muscat de Frontignan". They don't really want them to be grown or for that matter eaten elsewhere other than in their small part of the world.

In this land of legends and traditions there are various theories about the origin of this unique olive. I rather like the story that would date right back two thousand years when Agde was established as a Greek port on the Mediterranean Sea. Keen and crafty Phoenician merchants arrived in Agde with some scanty unhealthy looking trees and told the locals that they were looking for somewhere to plant them, see if they flourished and if so, purchase the land at a good price. The peasants in the country beyond Agde were just as wary in those days of foreigners invading their sleepy little villages as they are today of tourists and were not having them settle on the fertile plains.

They suggested the intruders could perhaps plant their scrappy vegetable waste on the more arid hills overlooking the valley of the river Hérault. Obediently, the Phoenicians planted their trees right out of the way, grumbled a bit about the quality of the soil and then sailed home. For quite a few years, the locals would laugh at the spindly trees as they grew slowly and painfully in the scorching sun, producing the odd leaf but no olives. Eventually the Phoenicians came back to Agde and went to visit their plantation. The locals were contemptuously sarcastic as they examined the barren trees almost wilting in the heat. The arid soil was clearly no use to anyone - and the Phoenicians bought the land for a song.

This time they decided however to settle there and strangely enough planted even more trees next to the apparently useless ones. The following year the harvest was fantastic and beautiful green olives sold at the local markets were the envy of every farmer in the area. The land was indeed just right and the trees had had time to establish themselves.

The Lucque tree is the only variety that needs to be pollenated from nearby trees of any other olive species in order to produce fruit.

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