Who cures their own black olives?

[forktender]

My Noni used to give me and my brothers each an old cotton pillow case, and send us out on our bikes to pick black olives. It was a job, not much fun involved. Back then there were whole gravel roads lined with olive trees, most are gone now.

Anyhow, I was driving through an area of town that I normally don't drive through because traffic was bad, and I passed a house that has eight olive trees down their driveway, close to my house.
I really didn't want to knock on their door, so I drove by until I saw an old lady bringing up her trash can. I introduced myself and showed her my driver's license to show her that I live in the neighborhood, then asked her if she used her olives. She said no it was too much of a hassle for her these days, but she did many yrs ago. So I asked her if she would mind if I picked a bunch, she said that would be great because she hates cleaning up after the tree's drop their fruit.

From what I remember, my Noni would wash the olives in big tubs of water then pour in a box of Kosher salt and bring the water up to a slight boil, drain and dry the olives and layer and cover them with rock salt and kosher salt for two weeks.

Then she would rinse them in cold water and spread them out on a sheet on the picnic tables in the yard until they were dry, then place the olives in jars with a clove or two of garlic, and a small piece of lemon or orange peel. They would last many months in the basement, covered with a tarp to keep the light off of them.

My long winded question is does this sound about right too, you? I'll most likely only add the garlic and rind to a few jars that will be used right away.

I'm going off of 50+ yrs ago memories, am I missing anything?

I remember she used to cure some with lye as well, but I don't want to deal with that on my first go around, unless I have to.

Furthermore, I'll for sure drop off a few jars to the lady, as a thank you for letting me pick them.

Thank you.
Dan.

 

[BrianGSDTexoma]

Sounds good. I would have no idea how to make them but if I had access to some would be willing to try.

 

[SmokinEdge]

Never done it but interesting for sure, I’ll ride along. What about the pits?

 

[Brokenhandle]

I don't care for olives but I'll follow along because it's interesting!

Ryan

 

[chef k-dude]

Very interesting and well written story. Not many people have memories like that of what I can only assume is a grandmother of Italian descent that you call "Noni". Is that correct?

It's pretty cool that you happened across a grove of olive trees the owner has no use for, and that you introduced yourself to her and opened up dialog to gain access to the olives. It reminds me of my years of mushroom obsession...knocking on doors of strangers asking them if they were going to harvest what they had on their property and whether they had put down any chemicals I should be aware of.

I have no experience in curing olives, but I love most olives, green, black...I haven't met many olives I dont like. I just made tepanade the other day. I'll be interested if you share what you end up doing with this here.

 

[Florida Chris]

Here's a post by Chris_in_SoCal from a little while back. Maybe he'll see the tag and chime in with his experience and advice.

Fermenting Olives

My little olive tree is about 5 years old now and was loaded with olives for the first time. I decided to pick them today and see if I can ferment them into something edible. It looks like this will be a long process. It will start with 4 days of soaking in RO water changing it daily before...

www.smokingmeatforums.com

 

[Fueling Around]

Not a clue here on what to do with olives black ripe or green.
I hope you found a new "girlfriend". That's what my wife calls the widows I befriend. Getting less of them in Minnesota. Got a lot of them in Florida.
I read somewhere that green olives are toxic unless processed properly. Maybe that is where you remember the lye treatment?

 

[jcam222]

Man I love olives of all kinds. I'm in for the ride

 

[Chris_in_SoCal]

The ones I made in 2023 turned out good, not great. I think mostly because the olives were over ripe. They ended up in the back of the fridge and were forgotten about. By the time I rediscovered them the jar was full of mold so I tossed them.

I was looking at the olive tree today as I was watering and there is a new crop growing. I'm sure I will give it another try but need to get pimentos this time.

 

[forktender]

Never done it but interesting for sure, I’ll ride along. What about the pits?

They were always left in the fruit.

 

[forktender]

Very interesting and well written story. Not many people have memories like that of what I can only assume is a grandmother of Italian descent that you call "Noni". Is that correct?

It's pretty cool that you happened across a grove of olive trees the owner has no use for, and that you introduced yourself to her and opened up dialog to gain access to the olives. It reminds me of my years of mushroom obsession...knocking on doors of strangers asking them if they were going to harvest what they had on their property and whether they had put down any chemicals I should be aware of.

I have no experience in curing olives, but I love most olives, green, black...I haven't met many olives I dont like. I just made tepanade the other day. I'll be interested if you share what you end up doing with this here.

Yup, Noni/ Nonni some people spell it with two N's was my Sicilian Grandmother, Gramp's was either Papa or Smitty, I guess Smitty was a WW2 thing that the troop's called each other. Gramp's stormed the beach in Normandy on "D" Day, he was one tough old dude, but he had a heart of gold.
He never once talked about the bad stuff, just the funny stuff they did to each other, those guys were total pranksters. Man, do I miss both of them, I wish I would've paid closer attention to how they cooked, cured and canned foods that they either caught, killed or grew in the garden, their garden was amazing.
Gramp's was into grafting fruit tree's he had some crazy combo trees, and Noni grew the veggies, and flowers. I don't know how she had time to do everything that she did around her house. Because she was always at either her Restaurant, or my uncles, she also cooked/ meal prepped for a 2 or 3 DR's that lived nearby, and ran a catering business on the side. She was an amazing woman, they for sure don't make them like that anymore.
I truly miss them with all of my heart.

 

[forktender]

Not a clue here on what to do with olives black ripe or green.
I hope you found a new "girlfriend". That's what my wife calls the widows I befriend. Getting less of them in Minnesota. Got a lot of them in Florida.
I read somewhere that green olives are toxic unless processed properly. Maybe that is where you remember the lye treatment?

That is where the lye came in, for the green olives.
The olives I'm getting are already black, maybe a smidge of green on them.
I most likely won't pick them until mid June, I have a lot going on right now, and they can benefit from a little more time on the tree. The best way to pick them is with a plastic rake, you put a tarp on the ground to catch the olives, The rake slides through the limbs picking the fruit, it's pretty slick.

 

[chef k-dude]

Dan,

Men like your grandfather liberated my Italian (by marriage) Uncle. My family does not hail from Italy but his family was the real deal. His brothers and sister all fled the war and made it to America. He stayed back, as a fairly young child as the story went...like really young...wish I could recall, maybe 11? He just wouldn't leave their home and wouldn't go with his family when they fled.

He ended up working for the Nazi's as a horse tender. He said they took very good care of him and were not cruel at all (I'm not supporting Nazi's here, just telling the story as I recall it). When the war was over, his brother and sister went back to Italy and found him, and arranged for him to immigrate to America. He was one of the sweetest men on the planet...very soft spoken. An auto mechanic who owned garages/gas stations AFTER bieng a coal miner and contracting black lung..

I regret not writing down the stories his brother and sister told when they came to West Virginia from Massachusetts for his funeral. I was the only cousin of dozens (nieces and nephews) that got to hear them at the time. They are fading in my head now and will soon be gone from this world.

I actually have his and my aunt's recipes in my possession (they are both deceased). People raved about his sauce or gravy...whatever you want to call it. I'm not doing that! It is a multi-day process! Some day I'll get back in to those recipes, you know how life gets in the way of those things we say we want to do. My aunt made the best candies...

I look forward to seeing your olive adventure! Whenever you get to it.

 

[forktender]

Isn't it crazy what our ancestors lived through? And yet we complain over the stupidiest $h!t, that really means nothing.

I have an aunt that made up a family recipe book and gave everyone a copy for Christmas a few yrs ago. The problem is most of the recipes go like this, add a little of this and a palmful of that, it's hard to reproduce them.
I need to ask my aunt, if she has my Noni's recipe books, I know she doesn't need them as she is a vegan.
The problem is they are most likely written in Italian, so I'll need to find an interpreter.

 

[SmokinEdge]

Isn't it crazy what our ancestors lived through? And yet we complain over the stupidiest $h!t, that really means nothing.

I have an aunt that made up a family recipe book and gave everyone a copy for Christmas a few yrs ago. The problem is most of the recipes go like this, add a little of this and a palmful of that, it's hard to reproduce them.
I need to ask my aunt, if she has my Noni's recipe books, I know she doesn't need them as she is a vegan.
The problem is they are most likely written in Italian, so I'll need to find an interpreter.

All true. I learned to cook that way and watched all family cook the same, pinch of this, handful of that. Which is fine but will drive you nuts with dough.

 

[forktender]

All true. I learned to cook that way and watched all family cook the same, pinch of this, handful of that. Which is fine but will drive you nuts with dough.

So true, I watched my Noni make bread and pizza dough either one or the other at least 3 days a week for as long as I can remember. No recipe, she just knew what it needed by the feel of the dough.

My years later, I decided I wanted to start making Naples style pizza.
I tried many recipes that I found online, some sucked, others were good but not great. Then I decided to make pizza dough once too twice a week until I figured it out/ my perfect dough. It took me almost a full year and a pizza making class at the Napa Culinary Institute that NY's pizza chef from Roberta's pizza put on to master my dough. I was able to finally make my perfect dough, and did it weekly for over a yr. Twords the end of the yr I could make it without messuring anything. Fastforward to the date we moved a few yrs ago, and my folder that had my original recipe never made it to our new house. I swear I think my wife tossed it because she was sick of pizza. LOL!!! She would never do that, but it's my running joke. I want to make pizza again, but I have no idea where to start, and don't have the drive to work on it like I did back then, and know that I will judge it against my old dough.

I wish I could make sourdough bread, but suck at following recipes.
It needs to be simple for me or I won't enjoy making it.
I have everything I need, I just need a simple recipe that doesn't take four days too a week to ferment. Best case, would be a recipe that I could make in one day too over night.

 

[SmokinEdge]

All true. My wife loves to bake. It’s funny. She finds a recipe that “sounds good” lays it in front of her and rough measures everything. She says she is chasing flavor but not following dough or batter recipe because “they don’t make that right” she is true genius at baking. Not so much cooking, that’s my world.

Really neither of us use measure per se when cooking. With exception to my curing, which is all weighed. I tried to convince her that baking would be totally predictable if she weighed dry and wet ingredients. She says that’s a waste of time. Girl can bake though no argument there.

 

[Fueling Around]

Before replying I wanted to see the hijack. Well Dan (OP) was in on the sidetrack so I guess we are good.
My wife is the cookie baking machine. I don't know what recipe she follows. She does adjust until it feels right and goes in the fridge for at least 24 hours to proof.
I am the bread making machine. I relatively follow a yeast recipe to start and adjust from there to get the feel of the dough. I change up things by using sourdough discard for the added flavor.
I stopped using true sourdough rise over a year ago. Yeah they look pretty, but don't fit the toaster