Extra virgin olives

Olive harvest

I harvested last year's olive crop from my patio allotment over the weekend. As you can see the olive growers of Spain, Italy and Greece can rest easy 🤣 

Inspired by Andrew's recent post on Facebook and being a curious, experimental soul, I'm having a go at turning them from completely inedible* into something that might just**, grace one of the Greek salads we have on a weekly basis.

I've have some of those teeny tiny jam jars -  saved from tea shop forays just in case they come in handy - and after discarding the wrinkly ones and the stems into the compost bin, I have just** enough olives to fill 2 of them. I found the instructions for dry salt-cured olives Andrew mentioned in his post, which in turn has a link to how to pit olives when they're ready to eat in around three weeks time.

Wish me luck.

Olives prepared for dry salt curing

Next up is olive tree pruning***, once we've got rid of this spell of cold weather.

* = reader, I tried one 😬

** = only just mind

*** = I'm going for a loose, topiary-style effect

Comments

  1. mycamerandme3656 April 2022 at 07:26

    I have pickled our olives each year for a long time, and they come out beautifully.
    I usually have several kilos, so cutting a nick into each one to let the brine is is a bit arduous, but once you get into a rhythm, it doesn't take long.
    They are soaked in brine for 10 days, changing the solution daily.
    Then stored in a stronger solution until required.
    I then wash them and add a little olive oil and a lot of basil and store in the fridge.
    You can add garlic pieces, but I found that they went mouldy before we had finished the olives, so I now omit that.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. VP6 April 2022 at 08:40

      I'm envious of your kilos! Your way is the one I knew about but looked better for when you have a larger crop. I was pleased to find there's also a dry salt cure which looked perfect for a little experiment with my tiny crop.

      Delete
    2. mycamerandme3657 April 2022 at 08:39

      Yes, of course, it wouldn't be worth all the bother for just a few olives.
      I would be interested to hear how yours taste at the end of curing.

      Delete

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