There are few ingredients quite so bound up with the idea of a good life as the olive. Synonymous with sun soaked terraces, long lunches and the kind of effortless Mediterranean cooking that has captivated cooks the world over, the olive carries with it a sense of place that few other foods can match. Small, briny and endlessly variable, it is a fruit that has shaped entire cuisines, economies and ways of life. The olive's story stretches back further than almost any other cu