A type of olive tree grown in Provence, France for making oil from.
Its large olives have a good, strong olive flavour with very little bitterness, making the oil seem almost a bit sweet.
In Australia, the trees are also grown for making table olives from. They are picked early, while they are still green and crisp, then cured and sold either marinated in oil, or in brine.
In Australia, the cognoscenti prefer oil from the Verdales that have gone wild or grown from seedlings, but these are less preferred by the industry as the oil extraction rate is not always very high.
In Australia, three distinct Verdale varieties have emerged: Verdale, South Australian Verdale and Wagga Verdale.
History Notes
Brought from France to Australia in the 1800s.