Handcrafted Olive Wood Kitchen Ware Fits into Your Hands as if it Loves Being There

If you've visited our Terresentials store in historic Frederick City, you've probably seen a group of interesting wooden items on the table in our rear craft area.  They are warm light brown, marked in swirling, undulating, or fractal patterns of darker brown, with a rich but soft shine.  Bowls, serving utensils, bread and cutting boards, even a mortar and pestle, they sit among the stoneware and baskets like trees on rocky grassland.  They are our olive wood kitchen ware.

Many of the items are hand-made by a  small Tunisian company. Tunisia is one of the world's leading olive producers, and the Sahel, a coastal plain in the north of this small country, is liberally cast with olive groves. The pictures of the Sahel evoke the dry wind and ripe smell from the trees. And what does the olive tree look like? Here is a lovely description prepared by our friends who craft the olive wood table ware: "If there were only one tree to tell us the story of the world, it would be the olive tree, its gnarled branches as thick as the hands of a wise old man, keeper of a secular conscience as old as the earth, the tree with a thousand virtues, the shimmering tree."

This quality of earthy wisdom is palpable when you pick up an olive wood product. Weighty and smooth, the pieces fit into your hands as if they love being there. Bring them up close to your nose and smell the olives, the baked North African earth, the hands that handled them. Olives themselves have a rich cultural and religious history, symbolic of peace, of plenty and of holiness. The leaves were used to crown champions in ancient contests. The oil was used to anoint the faithful. The fruit, the olive itself, is sustaining and nutritious. To use this kitchen and tableware is to touch the roots of our civilization when you serve a meal!

To care for these products, wash by hand with warm water and soap – do not soak – and rub a little oil (olive, of course) into the wood afterward to restore its shine. Then, use, love, and enjoy!