Monday, December 05, 2005

Nice Haul of Olives

olive1This being my first attempt ever at curing olives, I decided to start small.
Even the olives were small. Ultra-dinky.
Step one was easy enough: Wash them.
Step two was more tedious: Separate the greenies from the blackies.
olive2The black olives are curing in nothing more than plain kosher salt. They'll get a stir in a couple of days, and then they'll continue in the salt for another month, with twice-a-week stirs.
The greenies bathed in a lye solution for about 16 hours (they cured faster than the guidelines say, because they're so small). olive3Next they were rinsed in several changes of water for, I guess, about 10 hours. Finally they went into jars with a simple brine. I might toss in a clove of garlic too.
Meanwhile, what's Joe Lieberman up to? Sounds like he's considering defecting from the Democratic Party. Bye, Joe.

7 comments:

Monkey Gland said...

I so impressed. Major respect coming at you from the UK.

cookiecrumb said...

OMG. Thank you. That felt good! Warm and like.
(These olives are so luscious, Monkey Gland. Not as crisp and snappy as I'd like, but I can really taste the oil in there.)
Oh, and they're so local, I decided to repost the Eat Local Challenge decal. Heh.

Jocelyn:McAuliflower said...

cool! I have a local tree I've wanted to stalk for olives. I hope to remember your post when they are in season here.

Anonymous said...

Oh wow, I'm so envious that you can do this. Local olives? I was just stoked to discover fig trees in the neighborhood. No one knew what they were...

love the blog. the turkey sandwich below is making my mouth water. though, if i can fess up to one potential snob factor. A friend of mine always bakes brioche that she uses for sandwiches. And they are unbelievably good holding together a turkey sandwich.

Forgive me *with a butter smeared face*

cookiecrumb said...

Yeah, and I had no idea they were growing across the street until I walked to my voting station last month. Added bennie: the tree is still short, so it was no problem collecting olives.
mcauliflower, if I think of it, I'm email you next year at olive pickin' time. Or maybe you still have time to check out your local tree.
Vanessa. Wild figs? [Scrapes gaping jaw off ground.] Jealous conniption!

Anonymous said...

go fig—Utah had an influx of Italian and Greek immigrants to work the coal mines and quarries. So in the older hoods there are really mature trees with "strange looking fruit." I racked up some bad karma by nicking a whole bunch from a family that had no idea what they were. I assured them I "would take care of it." In the southern part of the state, there are pockets of trees from immigrants passing by. but of course, they're being razed for "luxury subdevelopments." argh.

cookiecrumb said...

I think that's how California got most of its olive trees originally, too.
It's such a shame when good bits of nature get razed for "progess." We're losing so many fruit orchards in my part of the world.