The olive has its roots in a traditional Mediterranean diet, but it’s enjoyed worldwide these days. So National Olive Day on June 1 is a great opportunity to find a way to incorporate some olives into your diet! Perhaps your local grocer has an olive bar, allowing you to select from the numerous varieties of olives. Or maybe you’ve received an olive at your local bar, as garnish for a martini. (Even James Bond made the switch to an olive garnished martini in the famous spy’s latest movie, Spectre.) Olives have more nutritional benefits than you might think. They offer a host of healthy types of fats and fatty acids, while also providing a natural source of iron. And there are far more ways to prepare olives than you probably know. Olives are grown on trees, and they can be grown for serving as a table fruit or for producing oil. If you cook with olive oil, you can receive many of the same health benefits that eating olives provide, including the introduction of healthy fats. Grocers carry a wide variety of olive oils, so you have plenty of options for incorporating them into your recipes. National Olive Day is a great day to try eating some new varieties of olives. And it’s also a great day for learning the magic trick for getting pimento inside the green olive! (A high speed machine pits the olive and then stuffs in pimento, which, unfortunately, isn’t all that magical.)