Whopper olives!
We picked our first crop from this olive tree that we planted
approximately four years ago. I wish I could remember its name but I
can't find the tag that I carefully put in a safe place.
Yesterday I put them into jars using the same process that I posted about
here in 2015.
This morning I've been out picking a half bucket of olives from a roadside tree in a secret location ;-) and have them soaking in pure rain water for three days.
At an auction a few years ago I bought a box of kitchen items for $1. Luckily this gadget was still in it's box, otherwise there's no way I'd have known what the heck it was used for.
It's an olive pitter and I do use it!! We had home made pizza last night and although Brian is not a fan of olives, my half always has heaps of home pickled olives piled on.
And the other question.... to pineapple, or not to pineapple, on a pizza?
If you enjoy eating olives but have always thought that pickling them was too hard, have a go, it's really dead easy. The only difficult part is waiting six months until ready to eat, but if you do them every year, you'll always have some ready for eating.
Let me know how you go.
Cheers, and thanks for visiting.
XX :)
WOW they are so huge! yes, i love olives too but i don't have a tree; one of my rentals had trees & i thought "awesome, can now have my own olives!" wasn't to be, made to mistake of biting into one straight off the tree! took me awhile before i was game enough to eat the jar variety after that! it was much later & i'd moved that i found out you're supposed to soak them before eating!
ReplyDeletewhat a neat little gadget! very handy!
my kids love pineapple on pizza, especially with ham, i'm more for the savoury types, though these days i don't eat them.
great post
thanx for sharing
I've also had the shock of discovering the bitterness of a raw olive Selina. ;-) The transformation between raw, and then after brining and fermentation is quite incredible. Magic!
DeleteSally, I picked about twenty off our newest olive tree and the only one of three or four that has produced olives. Obviously it helps to water them. I have them in a bottle in a dark cupboard and your post has reminded me that I need to check on them as they should be ready to use by now. I read on Morag's blog 'Our Permaculture Life' that someone told her not to mix her olives up but I had already put mine in brine all mixed up. Oops!
ReplyDeleteI wonder how yours are tasting now Chel? I usually process them all mixed up, just as they come from the trees, some black and fully ripe and some still green. Doesn't appear to make any difference to the flavour. I think the trees can be affected by wind more than lack of water, as ours get very little water or none at all besides the natural rainfall. Our other olive trees haven't cropped as well as this new one, that has had the grey water directed onto it a couple of times during this last summer.
DeleteMy little olive tree produced on little olive last year. We can only get better with our olive production.
ReplyDeleteHi Jane, yes, the only way is up from here. :-)
DeleteHow timely Sally, I just picked a couple of kilos of olives on the weekend - a lady contacted our community garden to offer free picking of her tree rather than let them go to waste. Last year was my first time preserving olives and I tried a few different methods and narrowed it down to two that worked for me. I think I'll add yours into the mix this year too so I can compare.
ReplyDeleteCheers,
Laura
Hi Laura, now I'm really looking forward to a post from you about the two methods you use for pickling olives. With so much going on here, I have tended to stick with this method because it's easy, it's worked for me and produced a delicious product at the end with great keeping ability. But today, as I was pickling another bucket of olives that had been soaking in fresh water for four days (water changed every day) I ventured forth and did a couple of jars using the dry salting method. Apparently, these will be ready to eat much sooner. I'll let you know how they go.
DeleteMy husband threatens our single olive yree every year. Trouble is that it fruits spectacularly.
ReplyDeleteI love the look of olive trees and there are a few here that have tiny fruit or none at all, but they reward me with their beauty. I wonder if you pickle your olives Brigie?
DeleteNot yet but I need to start to save the tree from hubs!!
DeleteAh, this is inspiration for me. I planted an olive tree last year. I think there's room for more! I love seeing how people deal with their harvests, and turn it into food. I'm looking at the next ten years, Sally, (we've already been here, a decade) and I know progress is possible. Albeit, incredibly slow, lol.
ReplyDeleteChris I thought it would seem a lifetime that I'd be standing beneath the trees we planted fourteen years ago, but within three years they were towering over me. This little olive has taken more than four years to fruit and although it seems a long wait, I wonder now where those four years went so quickly.
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