Curing Olives

Given a good summer an olive tree in the UK is more than capable of yeilding a crop of olives. If you want to make the most of what you grow and use them in the kitchen, you will need to cure them first, as straight from the tree olives a hard and very very bitter. Once cured, olives can be adventurous they can be stored and marinaded with flavours as lemon, oregano, garlic to name but a few.

Below is a simple process to cure olives, there are many ways to do this, but this is probably the simplest.

Water Curing "Smashed" or "Cracked" Olives (recommended for green olives)

- Inspect the olives. Make sure that they are as unbruised as possible, and that nothing has eaten out of them. If you use chemicals on your olive trees, gently wash them before beginning.

- Break the fruit. You can do this with a wooden mallet or, more commonly, a rolling pin. Just smack the little things, don't be afraid, but, of course, you want to keep the olives as whole as possible. You want the flesh torn, you don't want it to get mashed or to rip into several different pieces, or for the pit to get damaged.

- Place the olives in cold water. Completely cover all of the olives, make sure none are poking out. This can be done in a pan. You may need to weigh them down with something. At least once a day, change out the water with fresh, cold water. Make sure you don't forget, otherwise bacteria could build up in the water.

- Wait. This will be the hardest part of the curing process. Keep switching out the water daily, and don't touch the olives again. After the first week of the waiting process, you will probably want to taste one. The bitterness could already be gone by this time, but it is unlikely. Just keep waiting until the olives don't taste bitter any longer.