These ancient olive trees in Spain are gaining worth beyond their luxury status
Once sold as luxury items for the wealthy, the trees are increasingly protected - but no less valuable
The sun sets in eastern Spain and dozens of ancient olive trees cast long shadows on the ground.
Once dug up and sold as luxury items for the wealthy, they are increasingly protected as farmers and authorities realise these trees, some of which were planted by the Romans, are an invaluable part of Spain’s heritage.
Near the town of Traiguera, Amador Peset, 37, gets out of his old 4x4 and, in the biting wind, cuts across a field before stopping before a majestic tree.
“You’re probably in front of the biggest olive tree in the world ... with a girth of 10.2 metres,” the farmer says proudly.
Botanists say a circumference of 10 metres indicates a tree is over a thousand years old -- which means this specimen was around when the area was still under Muslim rule.
Peset lovingly tends 106 such “monuments”, cleaning their gnarled branches and ridding them of weeds that suck their sap like vampires.
Joan Porta, another farmer, says that just a few years back, olive trees were largely ignored in fields also full of almond and other fruit trees, vines or wheat.
In fact, they were often used for firewood in farms.
“Now we realise that they are thousand-year-old trees,” the 75-year-old says, pointing to the jewel in his own field’s crown.
