Curing Olives at Home
I intend most of my Thursday, Let’s Get Cultured posts, to be about cultured dairy products. However, from time to time I might feature non-dairy cultured items on Thursdays. Today I am going to talk about curing olives at home.
I learned about home curing olives from Jenny’s blog, Nourished Kitchen. She has an awesome and easy to follow step-by-step guide on how to crack, cure and season olives. She also has one of the best blogs out there, so I suggest once you are over there, to check out her fabulous recipes. I am not re-inventing the wheel on olive curing, so I will refer you to her fantastic blog where you too can see the process for olive curing at home. I do however, have some notes, and then I would like to share with you the various flavors I added to my olives.
But first I will share with you my source for the olives. Chaffin Family Orchards is a diversified farm in the Sacramento Valley of California. Their farm has been in the hands of the Chaffin family for 5 generations. Most of their olive trees are over 100 years old. The farm has been harvesting and producing olives and olive oil for over 75 years. Their olives are farmed without using chemical fertilizers, herbicides or pesticides. They use cover crops and rotations of cattle, goats, sheep and chickens to control vegetation and fertilize the orchards. The goats are also used to prune the trees!
Most of the research I did on olive curing suggests that you should soak your olives in water (changing twice daily) for 2-4 weeks. This is the process whereby the raw olives lose their bitterness. If you have ever tried eating a raw olive, you will see why this step is of utmost importance.
Olive Curing Notes:
I found that even 4 weeks was not enough time – I think we soaked our olives for close to two months, and they were still a bit bitter after all that time. I am not sure if it is because I cured them during winter, and it was just too cold in the house, or what. So after about 2 months, we decided to decant the olives, and flavor them but we added about ¼ cup of raw apple cider vinegar to the individually flavored jars. This seemed to take care of most of the rest of the bitterness – but it is not consistent from olive to olive. Some olives still are bitter. We have only started eating one jar, so we will see how the other jars are as we get to them. Maybe they just need a little more time.
Curing olives is really quite easy and straightforward. It is a fun project, especially if you have children and would make great presents to give to family and friends! It is a great traditional skill to add to any homesteader’s repertoire.
My Flavors:
*Lemon, Bay Leaf, Saffron
*Lemon, Bay Leaf, Herbs de Provence
*Lemon, Bay Leaf and De Arbol Chili
*Juniper, Mustard, Lemon and Black Pepper
*Lemon, Bay Leaf, Habanero Pepper
*Lemon, Bay Leaf, Coriander Seed, Cumin Seed, Sumac, Ras el Hanout
Peter - March 3, 2011 at 3:55 pm
Two months is a long time but then again, your olives may have been picked too early – hence the added bitterness. Curing your own olives isn’t hard, just takes a while but one must wait for all good things, no?
Rosa - March 3, 2011 at 4:06 pm
I’d love to try that myself.
Cheers,
Rosa
nina - March 3, 2011 at 4:13 pm
Last year I cured 50kg(110pounds) and it was most probably the most rewarding foodie related thing I have done in a long time, love the ritual and the end product!!
vanillasugarblog - March 3, 2011 at 5:35 pm
oh i will wait 2 months for a good olive…you bet!
imagine all the yummy olive salads, breads, and dips you’ll get to enjoy this spring & summer.
Peter G @ Souvlaki For The Soul - March 3, 2011 at 7:06 pm
My parents always cured their own olives but they never ventured from the usual flavours of lemon and oregano. I like some of the combinations you’ve come up with here Jenn.
anh@anhsfoodblog.com - March 3, 2011 at 8:06 pm
Hat off to you! I have seen fresh olives but feel that it’s too much work to cure them. Love what you have here!
City Share - March 3, 2011 at 9:27 pm
I’d like to cure my own olives some time too. Do you have to use a particular type of olive? My parents’ neighbor has an olive tree – I wonder if I could use those? Something for me to research…
Diana@Spain-In-Iowa - March 3, 2011 at 10:41 pm
Oh I’m so sad Jenn. I was curing my olives during the midst of Project Food Blog. In all of that craziness, I completely did not keep up with the changing of water and my olives went bad! Darn it!! This year for sure!!
Arlene (MOM) - March 4, 2011 at 10:44 am
You are fearless. What haven’t your tried to do yet??? I never figured they would take this long to cure. They are looking good.
Kris @ Attainable Sustainable - March 4, 2011 at 2:27 pm
This is something I’ve toyed with trying, and have seen the olives available from Chaffin Family Orchards. I’m stuck between wanting to try it and buying olives that have to be shipped here, though!
farida - March 5, 2011 at 7:09 pm
My dad used to cure olives a lot. And his technique was different. In Azerbaijan, to remove the bitterness, olives are soaked in special solution water. I think it is water combined with something I don’t know the English for:) After about 5-6 days, the olives have 0 bitterness, none at all. Then he brines them in salted water. I haven’t tasted anything better yet.
Ivy - March 6, 2011 at 4:05 pm
Your olives look delicious. I have only cured Kalamata olives because this is the variety our family produces and it takes about 15 days to remove the bitterness. We carve the olives before curing and may be this helps more.
5 Star Foodie - March 7, 2011 at 12:23 am
Wow, sounds like so much fun, would be a perfect project for 5 Star Foodie Junior!
kat - March 7, 2011 at 12:52 pm
Now there is something I’d definitely love to try!
Cameron Frost - August 13, 2011 at 6:52 pm
Farida, it sounds like your father was using a lye solution to remove the olive bitterness. This is how many commercial olive producers cure the fruit. The problem is that lye solutions strip flavour from olives plus it is a hazardous substance which poses problems for disposal.
renee ybarra - September 19, 2011 at 7:58 pm
me and my husban just started to cure the lye way and we just wanted to know if you have to presure cook them to seal or can you just water bath them if you know we would really like that info were new at this any help is great