Olive a Good Joke

Olive trees made their way to California by way of the Spanish Missions run by Franciscan priests who imported the trees in the 1700s. By the mid-1800s, these olives were sold, in glass jars or by the keg, but Spanish and French olives were more popular. Most mercantiles in the 1860s sold Italian and French olive oil, much to the dismay of American horticulturist A.J. Downing. In December 1860, the California Farmer and Journal of Useful Sciences reported Downing’s viewpoint: “It is not i