I love olives and olives love me

I think I forgot to tell you all about my great olive experiment. Last fall I read an article about curing olives at home. I was smitten with the idea and even my lack of access to olive trees could nat deter me. I found an olive farm (olive grower? olive ranch? I'm not sure) that ships them, and I ordered 20 pounds, split between two varieties. I had calculated that (even including shipping, a few bruised olives that would have to be discarded, and the cost of the brine ingredients), the olives would still end up being about $3 a pound.

After they arrived, I spent an evening cutting a slit in each fruit, removing the most bruised olives, and the starting the cure. Olives are cured because the bitter compounds in them have to be leached out, and there are several ways to do this. I tried two different methods: one in which the olives are immersed in clear water which is changed daily for several weeks; and one in which the olives are immersed in a brine which is changed once after several months. All of the olives turned out nice, but the salt water leached out more flavor than I meant it to. The water method was easier, too, because I got in the habit of changing the water every night (which only took a minute) and they were edible sooner.

Once the olives were sufficiently un-bittered (and that point is determined by personal taste), they can be placed in brines of vinegar and salt. The plain red wine vinegar-soaked olives were pleasant and versatile, but the flavored olives have been outstanding. So far we've tried a garlic lemon combo and a dill fennel mix. I'll definitely be repeating this again during the next harvest, although I plan to get some green olives as well then.