How Do You Preserve Olives At Home?
Once humans learned to cure the bitter fruit, olives became an ancient delicacy. Today olive trees are grown as ornamentals as well as in commercial orchards. The process from tree to delicious treat is time consuming but well worth it. Choose mature, but not soft, olives. Slightly wrinkled fruit is fine. It is best to pick olives before they fall but there might be a good selection of fruit on the ground after a strong wind. Wash the olives to remove dust and bird droppings. Score each olive with a sharp knife. A slit in one side is enough. Soak the olives in clean jars of water. Make sure the water covers them; use a weight if necessary. Rinse the olives daily and keep soaking them for 6 weeks. If a day is missed, white scum may accumulate at the top of the jar, but it can be washed off easily and is nothing to worry about. Rinse the olives. Add 1/4 of a cup of salt to each quart of water and soak the olives in this solution for 3 weeks, changing the solution every 5 or 6 days. Shake
