Well, um, yes! Ours are still very young and the ducks decided they like them too and ate every last leaf, the poor things are struggling back and the ducks are looking ridiculously healthy (and ripe for the pot).
Over 30 of us descended one Saturday morning and Trev and I alone left with about 20 kilos of olives. We gave away half of these along with a recipe on how to preserve them. The rest we split with a sharp knife while drinking wine and nattering with friends who were, likewise, splitting theirs.
The process involves lots of soaking in brine for 24 hours before replacing the brine with a new batch and repeating this process for 8 days. This draws out the bitterness and preserves them. Trev has bottles and bottles of them and is eating them at much the same pace.
3 comments:
Wow what a great idea. I think I will have a look to see if there is anywhere I can pick olives around where I live.
Can you please post the process/recipe please. would love to give this a go!
The olive recipe is: soak olives in a 5% salt (50g salt in 1 litre water) solution, changing the solution daily, for about 2 weeks or until the olives lose their bitterness. Wash them well when changing the salt water. At the end of this time, put the olives in clean jars, leaving a 12mm space at the top, and cover with a 5% salt solution. Pour a layer of olive oil over the top and seal the jars. You can eat them now, but they should keep for months or even years.
(Trev)
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