Salty Sam’s Fun Blog for Children
Number 451
Olive Groves
Hello Everyone
Have you ever been on holiday to a Mediterranean country and seen fields of beautiful olive trees with their silvery-green leaves growing in the sunshine?
Lots of people can now grow them as ornamental trees if they live in the south of the country because of warmer summers. The trees like mild winters and well-drained soils.
You are not allowed to bring small trees home with you from holiday though.
This is what is called biosecurity.
Any plants imported should be in proper quarantine to make sure they are not carrying diseases that could spread.
You should only buy Mediterranean and tropical plants from a supplier that follows special rules and can then sell them to you.
Olives are an evergreen tree related to lilacs, jasmine and forsythia. Olive trees can grow to a great age; many hundreds of years in fact. They don’t grow to be very tall but their trunks can be very wide.
Olive wood is hard and has interesting grain patterns, so is prized by woodworkers.
Olive leaves are a very pretty and distinctive shape – the olive branch is a universal sign of peace.
Olive groves are very important part of life around the Mediterranean you will notice. They provide a valuable crop to farmers there and have done for thousands of years.
But olive trees are actually grown as far away as the Arabian Peninsula, China and south Asia.
They are also found in South America, North America, Australia and the Caribbean. They were taken there by Europeans.
The trees have white flowers which will turn into small oval fruits that become green then purple. The black olives you buy in a can or jar have probably been artificially coloured to make them that dark.
lf you have an olive tree and it produces fruit, you will have to soak the fruits in salt water to get rid of their bitter taste before you can eat them.
This is called curing.
About 95% of olive crops come from the Mediterranean region; and about 90% of the Mediterranean crop is turned into oil.
Oil is produced from the fruit and it is very good food for the human body.
This oil is an important ingredient in holy oils used in a variety of religions and it was used to fuel the ‘eternal flame’ in the original Olympic Games back in Ancient Greece. The winners of games were crowned with a wreath of olive leaves.
Then 10% of the crop will be kept as table olives; these are the ones that will end up on your pizza.
The curing process that makes them edible can take a few days to a few months to complete.
lf you want to try and grow a tree from a stone, first soak it in hot water. If you are successful, your tree will grow very slowly.
Keep it away from frost and don’t over-water it.
Of course it will need lots of sunshine too.
lt will look very nice as a plant in a conservatory but it can be put out on the terrace in summer.
Eventually it might be big enough to be planted outside in the garden if you live somewhere warm enough.
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Thank you!
And see you again next Fun Friday!
Love and kisses
Salty Sam
www.christina-sinclair.com
Bill and Bob’s Joke of the Week
Bob: How does an olive become a pickle?
Bill: lt goes through a jarring experience!
Salty Sam © Christina Sinclair 2015
Unauthorized use and/or duplication of material from this blog without express and written permission from this blog’s author and owner is strictly prohibited.
Links may be used to www.christina-sinclair.com
Picture Gallery
THE SALTY SAM NEWS DESK
Last Saturday, I went out for a long walk with Bill and Bob. Their dad is studying hard at every opportunity, so if I take them out somewhere he will be left in peace.
At this time of year, there are lots of berries in the hedgerows.
As winter comes upon us and food becomes scarcer, the birds like to eat them. Different birds prefer different berries: red ones, yellow ones and black ones.
Birds and animals can sometimes eat certain foods that are poisonous to humans.
If you see a bright shiny thing, it might look nice to eat but don’t.
Blackberries are easy to identify but even they should be taken home and washed before you eat them.
Don’t eat anything in the countryside just because it looks tempting.
Deadly nightshade is poisonous – the clue is in the name.
Hawthorn berries are edible and so are sloes but they don’t taste very nice.
Adults use sloes to flavour gin.
Sloe
Elderberries are edible: they can be used to make dark red cordials and wine.
Elderberries look a bit like privet berries which are poisonous.
The two grow on stalks that look different. Elderberries grow in the shape of a plate whereas privet berries don’t.
Beware!
Hawthorn
Wild privet
Deadly nightshade climbs up things on a kind of vine
Deadly nightshade berries eventually turn black
Wild privet, spindle and rosehips
Never touch ragwort!
Salty Sam says
never eat wild berries
without permission from an adult
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Quick Quiz
Draw a column of boxes 6 across and 11 down
Write the letters OLlVEGROVES in the boxes down the left side
Put the 6 letter answers to these clues across inside the boxes
- a shell fish
- relating to a line or being in a line
- coming in
- a seller
- pertaining to horses
- a four string instrument
- to go back
- last letter of the Greek alphabet
- to prove to be true
- whole
- very mean with money
lt’s the Weekend!
HOW TO MAKE A SELECTlON OF FASHlON BAGS FOR A 12” DOLL
Here we have four bags to add a touch of glamour to any outfit.
BACK PACK (KNIT TWO)
Using 4mm knitting needles and grey dk yarn cast on 10 stitches
Knit 14 rows of stocking stitch
Knit 4 rows of garter stitch
Cast off
Crochet 40 chains into a length of white yarn to use as a cord to close the bag up
Crochet 25 chains into a length of grey yarn (twice) to make shoulder straps
TO MAKE UP
Using over-sew stitching and with wrong sides together sew bottom and side seams
Thread the white cord around the bag at the top
Attach the shoulder straps to the corners of the bag
Neaten and secure all ends
HAND BAG (KNIT ONE)
Using 4mm knitting needles and dark grey dk yarn cast on 10 stitches
Knit 18 rows of stocking stitch
Cast off
HAND BAG TRIM (KNIT TWO)
Using 4mm knitting needles and pink dk yarn cast on 3 stitches
Knit 16 rows of garter stitch
Cast off
TO MAKE UP
Sew the pink tops to the ends of the piece of dark grey knitting
Sew a bead for decoration onto one side of the bag
Using over-sew stitching and with right sides together sew side seams
Crochet 10 chains into a length of dark grey yarn (twice) to make handles
Attach the handles to the top of the bag
Neaten and secure all ends
PINK SHOULDER BAG (KNIT TWO)
Using 4mm knitting needles and pink dk yarn cast on 13 stitches
Knit 14 rows of moss stitch as follows:
Slip 1 (knit 1, purl 1) repeat the last 2 stitches to the end of the row
Knit 4 rows of garter stitch
Cast off
Crochet 30 chains into a length of pink yarn to make a shoulder strap
TO MAKE UP
Sew a bead onto one side of the bag
Using over-sew stitching and with right sides together sew bottom and side seams
Make a loop to go over the bead so that the bag can be closed
Attach the strap to the top of the bag
Neaten and secure all ends
GREY SHOULDER BAG (KNIT TWO)
Using 4mm knitting needles and grey dk yarn cast on 12 stitches
Knit 10 rows of stocking stitch
Change to pink dk yarn
Knit 4 rows of garter stitch
Cast off
Crochet 30 chains into a length of grey yarn to make a shoulder strap
TO MAKE UP
Sew a bead onto one side of the bag
Using over-sew stitching and with right sides together sew bottom and side seams
Make a loop to go over the bead so that the bag can be closed
Attach the strap to the top of the bag
Neaten and secure all ends
Please note that the material on this blog is for personal use and for use in classrooms only.
It is a copyright infringement and, therefore, illegal under international law to sell items made with these patterns.
Use of the toys and projects is at your own risk.
©Christina Sinclair Designs 2015
Quick Quiz Answers
- OYSTER
- LlNEAR
- lNFLUX
- VENDER
- EQUlNE
- GUlTAR
- RETURN
- OMEGA
- VERlFY
- ENTlRE
- STlNGY
Omega
