The olive tree fruit was just too ‘wild’ to eat until someone tried cooking it. The salted olives were not too bad at all. They were also crushed to separate the bitter juice from the sweet, slightly spicy, golden fat. Thanks to this gift from God the Mediterranean civilised. Those who were fortunate enough to live on its banks benefitted from its cultural enlightenment, an improved diet and technological miracles. Above all, rich and delicate dishes were prepared and even today they are still examples of refined gastronomy and good health.

The Mediterranean climate and soil provided the optimum growing conditions for this valued product. The surrounding villages planted whole fields of olive trees, making this tree a defining element of the landscape. The olive tree has stood the test of time and has a spirit of the old classical wisdom. It knows like few other living beings how to grow old. The fruits are renewed every year, but the trunk remains. If respected by the weather and people, it patiently grows, spreads out slowly, beautifully and symbiotically with the land for centuries.

In the Territori del Sénia, historical fortune has favoured the largest concentration of millennium olive trees. This means that in this corner of the world, the same landscape, the same trees, have seen empires fall, invasions take place, religions change, countries form… The ancient historian would perhaps speak of all these things. But far more important are the real witnesses, the Territori del Sénia sacred trees, who have been part of and seen the daily lives of generations and generations of individuals with names, friends and family, beliefs, problems and dreams. They have been cold and hot, hungry and thirsty, disappointed and joyful, as they cultivated, loved and respected the trees that gave them food. So many different men and women but somehow they could be the same ones returning each year to pick some olives that in the same way could also be the same. A thousand stories that have made history and today’s reality. The Territori del Sénia olive trees are the best place to understand the mechanics of time, both cyclical and linear. A beautiful and alive time capsule that you can taste. Taste it by visiting and by savouring the millennium olive oil which is really the ancient landscape bottled in the oil. An oil for anointing the best of dishes with liquid gold. A ray from this sun can elevate any culinary moment from just being simply food to a sublime cultural and aesthetic experience.

Here at the Alicia Foundation, we investigate the ways in which we can truly value earthly products. And at the same time, the strategies for promoting these products, since they are wonderful opportunities for the region. When the Taula dels Sénia Commonwealth commissioned the foundation to carry out a study on their oil, we explored the culinary possibilities, of course, but also all the synergies that, in any form, arise from a combination with the Territori del Sénia olive trees. A chance for the geography, fauna, flora, traditions, products and human landscape to shine through its extra virgin olive oil from the venerable olive trees.

Cooks, historians and scientists from Alice, who have participated in the fieldwork and have developed in our laboratory culinary products, processes and appropriate combinations, have fallen in love with the land, oil and other products in the Territori del Sénia, but most of all with the people who live there and keep it alive.