It may be the best olive oil in the world – but it’s certainly the oldest

At more than 2,500 years old the gnarled tree in our photograph is the oldest living thing serving mankind anywhere in the world. It was regarded as venerable when the Romans were picking olives from its branches long before Jesus Christ was born. It still bears a modest crop today and there will be a fraction of its fruit in the bottle of extra virgin olive oil I now have in my Exmoor kitchen.