Edible olives. Harvesting and curing recipe!
I live on Crete, the Greek island that has more than 30.000.000 olive trees! You can imagine that almost anybody on this island is dealing with olives, one way or another.
Most of them are used for olive oil but each year before the main harvesting we pick a few kilos for curing. They are a delicacy I can't resist and the curing method we use, is so simple that it takes almost no time at all!
We hand pick the olives making sure that there are no spots indicating that an olive fruit fly has laid eggs in it. The recipe is for green olives but even if they have turned rosy or even black, it is perfectly fine. I have tried it with olives that were picked in October, in November or even December and although different, they all turned out delicious!
We use no chemicals at all in our farm but still we rinse the olives with clear water, mainly to remove the dust. Afterwards we put them in plastic bottles up to 7 cm under the spout and we fill the bottles with brine that we have prepared. For each 1,5 lt bottle we use 1,5 spoonful of sea salt and half spoonful of citric acid. We add some olive oil and this is it!
The next day we cap the bottles and leave them in a dark and cool place for 3 to 6 months. After that time we cut the bottle with a knife, to release the pressure and move the olives in jars that we fill with olive oil and herbs. Usually I use sage, dittany and oregano but it is up to you to choose your favorite taste. The only disadvantage of this method is the waiting period but compared to other curing ways this is the easiest one and the olives are preserved perfectly for, at least, two years.
The last shot are from last year's harvest which was in October, that's why they are green!
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Thank you very much for the support, much appreciated!
this is great. I'm in California, and there are abandoned Olive groves everywhere and I have been meaning to snag some olives and cure like you mention here. It's one of my favorite foods. I'll keep this post for reference so when I do it, I can try your way. Thanks for sharing!
Thank you Kelly for stopping by, I am glad you found it useful. Good luck with curing your own olives, I hope you'll like the result as much as I do!
I'll let you know how it goes when I get them!!