This jarred a few old memories for me as a young kid at my Great Noni's/ Granny's house in San Diego, Cali.
She had 20+ olive tree's that lined her backyard fence, and would have a big olive picking party for all of our family and friends on a Sunday after church.
I hated going to Church as a kid, but I knew there would be a killer Sunday meal from the time we got home until everyone passed out in a food and wine coma.
The Picking party was no different, everyone that came brought over their favorite dish, there was enough food to feed an Army.
I sure wish I had learned her preserving method, it was a simple salt cure, that was amazing. There would be 2-3 blue plastic 55 gallon drums filled to the rim with 2 to 3 different verities of olives, some green and large and others small and different shades of green to purple.
Some would get salt cured and others were either pressed at by Papa/ Great Gramp's into olive oil, and others preserved into fresh olive oil.
This post is long and not very helpful, but it deserved to be shared.
I miss my Noni and Papa, so much, I wish they lived longer to teach me the old Sicilian/ Palermo "The old country ways and recipes" I learned a lot from them but not nearly enough.
So if you have grandparents, aunts and uncles, or parents, pay attention and ask lots of questions. Or you will be missing out on a wealth of knowledge, and teach the youngsters around you everything you know.
I will be following this thread very closely, thanks for sharing the journey.
Best of luck to you.
Dan.