Nov 6, 2019
Foraging for Wild Olives — Cruelty Free
Now that fall is here, wild olives can be found ripening on trees in the southwest. From crisp apple green fruits, to the familiar dark kalamata shades, they are tempting to pick and devour straight from the tree. Despite the abundance of these little drupes, to most people they are just an ornamental because of the intensely bitter compounds found in fresh olives.
It was a warm, sunny afternoon when a casual walk turned into the discovery of a small olive grove next to an abandoned building. Branches dripping with some of the biggest olives I had seen, and largely untouched. I immediately began picking olives from the low hanging branches, ripe ones with a few green and rose olives for variety and crunch.
Turning a fresh olive into an edible, appetizing bite is a skill that takes a long time to perfect. A skill I have not personally mastered, however after over a dozen attempts and countless tutorials, I devised my personal method that produces a simple, crunchy and tasty olive in under a month. It starts with a water cure to leach out the bitters, then finish with a simple salt brine. Some lemon juice is nice to have to combat some color change in the olives, but not necessary.
Begin with your olive harvest.
1. Take a quantity of fresh olives and wash them well. Treat each olive like a mini avocado, and use a knife to split each olive all the way around the pit. Gently twist the halves apart, or use the knife to gently wedge the halves apart if its a firm olive. One half of the olive will have a seed, and the other side will be without.
2.Drop the olive halves in a large lidded jar or container. A gallon water jug works well. Drain and rinse the fresh cut olives several times before finally filling the jug with water. Add a little lemon juice to the water. Let the olives soak like this for a few days on the kitchen counter or a cool place.
3.Drain, rinse, and change the water every few days. Try to do this at least twice a week. Repeat for 2–3 weeks.
4.Begin tasting an olive after week 3. If still bitter, continue rinsing and soaking the olives in fresh water until there is no bitterness.
5.When the bitterness is gone, do a final rinse. Place olives in jars with wide mouths, so you can easily scoop olives from the container with a spoon.
6.Prepare a simple brine. Do this by adding 1 Tablespoon of salt to 1 gallon of water. Drop a few garlic cloves into the jars, some fresh rosemary sprigs and maybe a dried chili pepper. Pour brine over the olives. Place in the refrigerator and allow to brine for a week.
7. You can begin eating and serving the olives at any time after the brine. Pour a little olive oil into the top of the jar for richness.
Originally published at https://www.crueltyfreemag.com on November 6, 2019.
