making olives

i've been wanting to make olives for a couple years now, but i kept missing the picking season. well, the picking season is now and i went on an olive picking walk through the neighborhood. i found a few recipies online and started a batch of brine-cured olives last wednesday. they should take four to six weeks to cure.

while i was out running errands yesterday i saw a woman and her two children picking olives. i flipped a u turn and got out to ask the woman how she processes her olives. she turned out to be from albania and, with a little help in the translation from her young daughter, told me that where she comes from people use lots and lots of olives, but the olives she's used to are expensive here. so she was out picking olives that were going to waste - same thing i'm doing! she, however, has lots of experience with this and told me how easy it is. here's her process:

pick and wash the olives.

crush each olive to break it open. you can pit them at this stage or not.

soak the crushed olives in plain water for five days. change the water each day.

on day six, rinse the olives and put them on a baking pan. cover them liberally with salt and place them outside in the sun for a day.

when the olives have had their day in the sun, rinse them really well and place them in clean jars. cover them with heavily salted water (another recipe suggested 1/4 cup salt to 1 qt water).

the woman said the olives should be sweet with no bitterness and keep in the fridge or in the cupboard for a year. i started a batch today. i took pictures and i'll post a step-by-step with pix soon.