You can imagine my excitement when a girifriend of mine found boxes of fresh raw green olives, yes they came from the states.. Needless to say two boxes were gotten.. one for her, one for me.. a bit of time down the google rabbit den, some reading and poking around my ferment books and a few other really old cookbooks and I have the basic’s
The first thing I did was take out what looked like a perfect smaller fresh raw olive and bit into it.. they said they would be bitter and not eatable.. but they also keep saying, start testing the olives at a certain point to find out when they are not bitter and so on.. how do you know what the starting point is if you don’t try a raw one..
Whoa.. I have a pretty good bitter profile given the wild forage I eat, far more then the average person and that olive had me spitting and mouth puckering and also running split as my body went.. out, out.. get it out lol
Then it was a matter of sorting, tips off, checking for any turning color, any with clear splits or to large skin pits.. thankfully not to many had to be removed and then it was ready for its first salt soak.. 3 tbsp of salt per gallon of fresh water and so each bowl was prepared, salted, water added and lids went on and into a cool dark place.. Water Change and fresh salting twice a week for 4 weeks, then moving over to once a week for 4 to 8 weeks and then the final salt cure and prep for a few different ways..
Like most ferments, its takes a prep, a little bit of work and watch but mainly time 🙂
I really look forward to reporting on this project.. making homemade olives has always been on my bucket list.. I normally much perfer black olives so it will be interesting to see if I like nibbling on big green ones, I think some can be stuffed, I will find different ways to use them I am sure.. and hope to gift some out to a few select friends for christmas gifts (fingers crossed they are ready)
Just another Day on the Farm 
Well, that’s a new one! I had no idea how olives were put up, or that fresh ones were awful.
Me too.. I was surprised at how hard it was.. I mean you can bite into it but its hard skinned with thick flesh and so so bitter.. makes me wonder how many ways they tried to figure out how to eat it, it would be like many things.. not good raw but we found ways around it..
I dusted off my fermenter this year…hot sauce. I’ve got a nice bright red one, a pineapple and habanero one (milder) and am about to finish up a sriracha. It’s astonishing what guy can do with water, salt, and time.
How lovely ValB, I am doing different ferments as well.. it is amazing, and I will doing fire cider this coming week I expect.. would love more info on the pineapple habenero if you want to share on it.. Salt cured foods are vast and yummy and across so many cultures
You might get this twice – it said it didn’t sent the first time.
Two large pineapple cubes, four yellow peppers sliced, six habaneros halved and deseeded. Seven days under usual salt brine. Drain (save brine) and blend in blender. Add brine until consistency you like. I find I have to add a tsp sugar to bring the ‘bright’ back to the fruit. This might be at your heat level, if not, add half a habanero in and blend, etc until you’re happy with the heat. Store in fridge. 😊
Awesome, thanks I am so going to make that.. yum
So interesting! I have never really thought about doing anything with olives. They are still filed in the comes-in-a-jar-from-the-store section of my brain. Really looking forward to hearing how this turns out.
Me too Willowcreak.. me too