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<pre>This entire thing started with an advertisement from a British company that
obviously has no clue when it comes to geography:

>"One litre Italian Extra Virgin Olive Oil (produced from the
>Koroneiki Olive in the Kalamata region of Italy, dark green in colour
>with a delicious Fruity flavour and a peppery aftertaste)" from a firm
>called Hampers of Broadway (UK).
>So Italy finally won the war?

Kalamata is in the southern Peloponnese, a prefecture in Greece (not Italy),
and where the Kalamata olive originated. We have about 150 Kalamata producing
trees on our farm. The Kalamatas are not only fantastic as a table olive, but
also produce an excellent oil. Of course if you're a producer Kalamatas are
not cost effective for oil. We produce about 40 kilos of Kalamata oil a year
for personal consumption. The rest of our trees produce mostly Korenekis.

>It sounds just a little bit offensive, doesn't it?

Roberto, I take it the line that offended your sensitivities was:

>"Italy wanted Greece REALLY bad, probably just for superior olives."

You continued writing:

>I would like to say, in addition to the above, that generalisation usually
affects truth very heavily.

If you'd like specifics of the Italian and German occupation of Greece during
World War II and the effects on the Greek people I'd be more than happy to
provide them Roberto, but I don't believe this is the forum that particular
information belongs in. A little too ugly for a bunch of peaceful olive
producers to read!!!! Besides that, it's ancient history. We seem to get
along much better now so I think it's best to forget it.

No offense was intended Roberto. Had I intended being offensive be assured that
you would indeed have been offended. I was simply answering a question by one
of the other list members. Maybe I should have put a great big <BEG> (Big Evil
Grin indicating a statement made in jest) after my "superior olives" statement
because it was just that, what I considered a humorous statement in line with
the competition that seems to exist in olive production in southern Europe.

Nah Nee Nah Nee Boo Boo, our olives are better than yours. <BEG> Now do you
understand?

Loosen up. Life's too damned short to go through it without a sense of humor,
and there's a lot more to it than olive production!! With that I'll go back to
taking care of a basically problem free 900+ tree grove that's been in our
family for about a century and continue exporting our Greek olive oil to Italy
to be bottled and produced as "Italian" olive oil while laughing all the way to
the bank. I have to admit that the Italians are much better at marketing than
the Greeks.

May all of your harvests be huge and trouble free!

Norm

Norm Corley
Athens, Greece
http://www.geocities.com/NapaValley/7003 - Personal Page
http://radivision.hypermart.net - Business Page

"I didn't fight my way to the top of the food chain to be a vegetarian!"
</pre>
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