I have two olive trees in my back yard that I planted several years ago. The largest one is a Sicilian one and the smaller is Italian. The smaller is one of two I bought as pollinators for the larger older one, but as luck would have it, one of them got broken off in its infancy. I have harvested a few…very few olives from the larger tree over the years. The offering varies in quantity and quality every year. This year, I got about 20 olives and have put them through the procedure for making them edible. They are mostly ‘pit’ but it’s still a fun project. I am hoping to have a nice big fat olive of my own in a martini before I die!
Before brining them in the final step, you must soak them in cold water for a week or longer until they lose their bitterness. They had to be drained every day and then wash the bowl and refill with fresh water. As part of the process, it was necessary to weight them down with something to keep them submerged…and I didn’t have anything…so, ta daaa…
A custom measured disk of thick acrylic with olive shaped holes in it. Keeps them submerged and helps to drain them everyday.
I always wonder how people figured this stuff out. “This tastes revolting! … but maybe if I boil it for 2 days and bury it in peat moss and crushed oyster shells for a year, it’ll be good.”
Kimchi, yogurt, sour cream, wine and cheese all are what happens naturally so a means of saving temporary food abundance for when it is not is hardly surprising, but things like olives, manioc, aki fruit that are all quite poisonous is a harder go.
You know, i’ve thought of this often. “Hey, something just fell out of that chicken’s butt, let’s eat it!”
Or oysters… “This looks like a big wad of snot…wonder how it tastes?”
Those early experimenters must’ve been pretty hungry…
Yes…that’s another alternative. Lye, I think. All the processes are rather lengthy, though.
“I always wonder how people figured this stuff out”…and I wonder this, too. Like who the heck decided to pick up some galls from an oak tree and make ink with them? Ha ha!
Got a rather large olive tree in the back corner. One year it was full of olives so I had asked my mother (country girl green thumb card holder) what to do with them.
She said, pick them all and place in a bushel basket.
Drag it to the curb for pickup.
Go to the store and buy a jar for $1.75.
Pick up the phone and thank Mom for great advice about not wasting time on needless adventure.
So obviously, the process is tedious and not for casual consumption.
A little later I had decided to trim it down because it was getting out of hand. I had a fire going in the pit and dropped a double armful of sticks and leaves in. When tossed into the flame, there was a fwoosh, and a column of fire about 15 foot tall. So there I was sitting on the ground from reacting. Eyebrows mostly gone and a fine trimming of loose hairs on the beard and head.
Olive oil, olive tree leaves, and sap are highly energetic fire wise. Best I could toss in safely was a minor hand full at a time.
Hat is off to you if you are going to process those olives. I never took the plunge.
Loved your story. I experienced similar when I foolishly threw a bunch of walnut shells into the fire in the wood stove. Didn’t lose any eyebrows, but the result was frightening.
As I said, maybe before I die I will have an olive of good size and good taste, but it’s not happening anytime soon right now. I’m just having fun trying.
