kitchen Angst!

Here in sunny California, it is the start of olive season. The fruit is on the tree and ripening more every day. Now is around the time you want to be harvesting your green olives, if you haven’t already. Unfortunately for me, my neighbors 8 olive trees have all been attacked by fruit flies. This means no fresh olives for me unless I order them on line or buy them at a market (which most won’t carry due to the low interest in such a product). That sucks, I really enjoyed brining my own last year, and was looking forward to doing it again this year. The process is time consuming but well worth the effort. You will have one of the most unique Christmas gifts for your friends, and be the talk of your circle, for years to come.
The process is simple and straight forward. You take the raw fruit and soak it in a salt water solution (changing the liquid every two days or so) for 6 to 8 weeks, until all the bitterness has been drawn out , then put it into its final “flavor brine” to finish the process. Yes it does take time but in small batches it is very manageable. For an Olive lover like myself, there is no cooler gift than home cured olives. Here is one site I have found and used in the past for this very thing! curing my own
I hope you find this fun and as exciting as I do. I really like doing things myself just to see what goes into it and how hard it is. I find it makes it easier to pay for it at the market when I know the process that had to be followed to get it on the shelf!
Once you are comfortable with the Basics have fun with it. Add chile’s, spices, herbs or try using different vinegars to finish the process. What about Chocolate? I haven’t tried it myself but I do know salty and sweet go well together. The addition of Bitter coco could give you a nice end result . Just remember the initial curing process should always remain the same. You first have to pull the natural bitterness out of the raw fruit, only then will your end result be worth it!