According to Hugh Nibley, the word kerem is the word for olive grove in its oldest occurrence when it appears in the book of Judges 15:5. But in the rest of the bible it means a vineyard. Palestine is the home of the vine, as well as the olive; they go together. There's the very famous poem by Ovid about the olive and the vine--how the vine clings to the olive and grows up around it, etc. The wedding of the olive and the vine is a classic theme. Thus here in chapter 5 of the book of Jacob, the word actually means either one. It means a vineyard or it means an olive grove, and they grew together. So when you see the word kerem in the Old Testament, you can translate it as either one. That's exactly what Jacob has done here.
The karst of the Dalmatian Coast is absolutely bare rock where the soil has been washed away. It was timbered once upon a time. Anciently, the timber was all cut down, and the soil was all washed away. That happens when you cut them down; you lose them forever. But the whole coast of Dalmatia is olive groves, and between the olive trees are the vines growing. [Hugh W. Nibley, Teachings of the Book of Mormon, Semester 1, p. 398]
“Vineyard”
According to John Tvedtnes, readers of Zenos's parable in Jacob 5 have been perplexed by the use of the term "vineyard" to denote a parcel of ground in which olive trees are planted. Perhaps one should expect the word "orchard" instead.
Egyptian, which is related to the Semitic language family, has two basic forms for "vineyard." The older form has a final n . . . and is to be read k3nw. The use of both the tree and the vine determinative at the end of the word is evidence that it really means both "vineyard" and "orchard." . . . The Encyclopedia Miqra'it notes that "The Egyptian k3mn could be used for both a vineyard of vines and a plantation of mixed fruit trees. . . . The scribe Any counted twelve vines that he planted in his garden, and alongside them 100 fig trees, 170 date palms, and the like." [John A. Tvedtnes, "Vineyard or Olive Orchard?," in The Allegory of the Olive Tree, F.A.R.M.S., pp. 477,479]
Jacob 5:3 Vineyard ([Illustration]): An olive grove, showing the trees well tended and the ground carefully cleared. Jacob's use of the term "vineyard" to depict a place where olive trees were cultivated is in keeping with ancient Near Eastern terminology and practices. [Stephen D. Ricks and John W. Welch eds., The Allegory of the Olive Tree, F.A.R.M.S., p. 480]