Helen RandellOi Oi Olives
August 24th 2008 09:11
I have just spent the past hour bottling some preserved olives. We picked the olives themselves from a tree on the side of the road (yes… it was a little embarrassing) about 6 weeks ago now, and they have another 6 weeks to go until they will be ready to eat.
For the first two weeks after picking, you need to rinse the olives daily in clean water. This will remove a lots of the acidity on the outside of the olives, as well as cleaning up any bits of dirt etc from the tree itself. Then, for three weeks, you sit the olives in a brine solution (25ml of salt per litre of water), with some muslin over the top to ensure that all of the olives are fully covered. You will probably find during this time some mould will develop on the top. This is fine, simply remove the cloth and rinse the olives before moving on to the next step.
The final step (which I have just completed) is to make up a solution of one part olive oil, one part brine and one part vinegar as well as adding some flavouring such as garlic, bay leaves, fennel and chilli.
So now, we just have to wait another six weeks – and they will be ready to eat!
For the first two weeks after picking, you need to rinse the olives daily in clean water. This will remove a lots of the acidity on the outside of the olives, as well as cleaning up any bits of dirt etc from the tree itself. Then, for three weeks, you sit the olives in a brine solution (25ml of salt per litre of water), with some muslin over the top to ensure that all of the olives are fully covered. You will probably find during this time some mould will develop on the top. This is fine, simply remove the cloth and rinse the olives before moving on to the next step.
The final step (which I have just completed) is to make up a solution of one part olive oil, one part brine and one part vinegar as well as adding some flavouring such as garlic, bay leaves, fennel and chilli.
So now, we just have to wait another six weeks – and they will be ready to eat!
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Comment by Nomad
Awesome Food
hope they turn out good... olives rule!!
nomad