Sunday, March 28, 2010

Prez-erved Olives

Okay, I know I said I'd make something for Lester 'Prez' Young but I couldn't help the cheesy pun title. Forgiven?

On Saturday afternoon, I cycled around the corner to an olive tree that Sarah had discovered and told me was 'laden' with fruit. I took my back pack, a large plastic shopping bag and a regular supermarket plastic bag. Either her version of laden is a few olives or someone got there first. Thankfully, there were two trees and it got me about 1.5 kilos of black olives. I took those babies home and preserved them.

Here's how things went:

First, wash your olives under cold water and drain.

Look how purdy these babies are. Organic too!
You'll need some rock salt - I used a 2 kilo bag
 Cover your olives well. Try to do it in layers
The salt will break down the bitter juice in the olives. Make sure you
have a bowl under your strainer (you can also use a cane basket) to catch the juices.

Cover the olives with a clean cloth or tea towel and store in an out of the way place. I have a walk-in pantry and they are living on the bottom shelf. Give your olives a shake at least twice a week and drain out any of the run off from them. In about four to six weeks, they should be ready.  Watch this space for part two when I make the olive oil/chilli/garlic marinade in which to store them in.

Cost thus far; $3.00 for the salt. Olives were a donation from Mother Nature.... hmmm.

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