When I was in high school, my friends and I used to sign our notes/letters to each other saying "Olive juice always". Why would we do such a thing? Well, glad you asked. When you mouth "olive juice" it looks like you are saying "I love you". Try it. I'll wait. See?? Now, doesn't hurt that I personally LOVE olives and I WILL always love them. But enough about me and my crazies.
Before Christmas, Hubs and sons picked a bunch of olives off our tree. Not having any expectations nor really any idea how to process them, he hit the books trying to figure out the best way to make that awful bitter flavor go away. Then came the arduous task of slicing each olive (there were a LOT - almost an entire 5 gallon bucket was full), picking through to get rid of the "questionable" ones and rinsing the water. After they had been sliced, he filled the bucket with clean, cold water and let them sit overnight. 24 hours later, he would drain them and fill the bucket up again. This continued for a week. Once that was complete, he found a brine recipe that seemed simple - it included lots of salt, water and red wine vinegar. Topping the water with about 1 inch of olive oil sealed them in thus not allowing air to penetrate the brine. He covered the bucket with the lid, set it on the shelf and we ignored it for one month.
On Barry's birthday, it was time to check them out. NERVOUS! Had zero expectations, especially considering this was his first batch. Lo and behold they were TASTY! I didn't try any because at the time of canning them I was quite sick, but Hubs and kids all said they were really good. So we divided them up and sealed them and now we have fancy homemade olives. How cool is that? We will definitely have to invest in an olive pitter but for now this will work just fine. Can't wait to start experimenting - garlic, jalapenos, GREEN olives...so many possibilities.
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| Olives with brine topped with a little Olive Oil |
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| Pre-brine. Don't they look like cherries? |
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| Mmmmmm....Lots of olives |
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| Ready to be put on the shelf! |
I'm so very proud of Hubs for not only following through with this project but making something quite tasty!
Peace Out :)
Those look fantastic! I love olives.
ReplyDeleteCome visit and I'll throw in a jar of olives! :)
DeleteFantastic! I never heard of anyone I know making olives! And I KNOW how much you like olives!
ReplyDeleteAwesome! So jealous! I can't wait to make it out there again to see all the progress you guys have made! Maybe a cherry pitter would do the same as an olive pitter? Don't know the difference but my cherry pitter cost me less than $10.
ReplyDelete