[Taltarzac725]

Originally Posted by Taltarzac725

Jumble - Houston Chronicle

Ditch.
Blurb.
Expose.
Alkali.

You can find the influence of Napoleon Bonaparte in many things in 2013. Among these are one region of expertise-- the making of olives in Napoleon brand olives. Here's a blurb from the website of Napoleon olives about U.S. consumption of olives. http://www.napoleon-co.com/pages/pro...es/olives.html

Americans consume some 180,000 tons of olives annually:
110,000 tons of black olives from California
40,000 tons of Spanish-style stuffed green olives
25,000 tons of black ripe olives from Egypt/Morocco/Spain
5,000 tons of specialty olives, including Kalamatas

Olives enjoy good annual growth of 5-10%. The U.S., for instance, imports 50% of Spain’s crop, the EEC 28%, and the Arab countries 10%. Spain is the world’s biggest producer of table olives, with annual production at around 200,000 tons. With a base of about 300 million trees, Andalusia, particularly the province of Seville, accounts for some 50% of the national production. Harvesting begins in September.

Even if you want to ditch the ideas of Napoleon, you still have to contend the many places that he has had influence on like with the Napoleon brand of olives which show an image of Napoleon on the can. We are exposed to Napoleon's impact much like an olive that needs to be treated with an alkaline solution to counteract its bitterness.

“Black” olives are, technically speaking, fruit which have been picked before quite ripe, and which have been blackened by oxidation (the bitterness is counteracted by treatment with an alkaline lye solution), packed in brine, and preserved using heat sterilization. With the exception of only a couple of varieties that sweeten as they ripen (Greek Thassos and Italian Dolce Di Andrea), olives are extremely bitter and inedible straight from the tree.