Olives

As mentioned in another post, Daniel and I are interested in planting olive trees. Before spending money on buying a tree though and then finding out that we are rubbish at brining olives, we decided we would experiment with a few batches of olives first. So in our kitchen at the moment are three different batches of olives curing on the stove top in ice-cream containers.

I got the olives at a few different places. I bought one lot from Meridith's, a local food market. The next lot, both green and black olives, I sourced through Hobart Freecycle. Hobart Freecycle is great! It is a network which "is open to all TASMANIANS who want to "recycle" that special something rather than throw it away. Whatever it is -- a chair, a fax machine, a piano or an old door, feel free to post it. Maybe you're looking to acquire something yourself! Nonprofit groups are encouraged to join the network too. One constraint: everything posted MUST BE FREE." So a few weeks ago, I posted a message asking if anyone had an olive tree I could pick some fresh olives off. I got one response, and so Daniel, Nicholas and I took a day trip to South Arm to do some picking. It was so generous of this person to allow us into her yard to pick her olives. She even said we could come back for more this year or next if we wanted. I think we will see how the olives turn out first :)

As mentioned, I have three batches of olives on the go, brining in different ways. The first batch involves green olives being soaked in fresh cold water for up to 10 days. It will then be placed in a brine solution for 3 to 4 weeks.

The second also involves green olives, but these olives are being soaked in salt water, which is also changed daily, for about 12 days. They will then also be placed in a brine solution until ready to eat. I found this recipe on a site called Pickling your Olives and am using the 'Olives Australia's Favourite Method' recipe.

The third is a container of black olives. These are the easiest, being covered in rock salt and being turned daily. I am using a recipe I found on ABC's Gardening Australia site.

One thing I have discovered in my short time of pickling olives, is that pickling olives requires you to be motivated. Despite my lack of motivation towards these olives at times, I am interested to see how they turn out and what they taste like.