In the lands of the Carolea di San Pietro a Maida, there are olive-growing pachyderms dating back to two to three thousand years ago, similar specimens can be admired, still remaining in Calabria, also in Villapiana di Sibari, in the Garga valley in Saracena, in Cassano Jonio, in Capo Spulico, in Amendolara, in Gerocarne, in Marina di Strongoli, in Mesoraca etc. In the “Frassa” area at the entrance to the crossroads that leads to Vena di Maida there are four majestic olive trees among the largest in the world, which were already there in the time of the Pharaohs; the Bini, recalls that of Plato in Athens, of the Strega in Magliano (Grosseto), with more than 10 m. of circumference, which agronomy specialists date back to a few centuries before the coming of Christ, (therefore older than that of the Garden of Gethsemane), which is estimated to be more than 2000 years old. Caruso recalls that in the Gioia Tauro plain there are specimens that reach 22 meters in height and even more, sometimes exceeding 5 quintals of product per plant; on the hill of olive trees of the former fiefdom of Maida and in Gerocarne there are thousand-year-old cyclops of 8-10 meters in circumference, capable of producing almost 6 quintals of olives a year. Five to six people are needed to hug the stem.

Of course, to achieve these records the oil needs a temperate climate, without strong temperature changes, a temperature that does not fall much below 5°C and a maritime climate or at most the middle and lower Mediterranean, in any case not mountain.