Preserving olives

After picking a substantial amount of olives on Saturday 27th May, and using a water bath swapped daily from Sunday 28th, it’s time to start the final brine. All were single sliced on the Sunday morning and water curing started Sunday afternoon.

Based on the mediterranean style cracked olive style from  The University of California Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources publication 8267 via Chiotsrun.com I prepared

1. 3 jars of green olives that had been water cured for 16 days at room temperature (~ 17 – 19 degrees). These smelt like preserved olives, and were no longer bitter. In smaller metric units, 870mL of cool water to 105g to 110mL of white-wine vinegar was used as the brining solution, and olives were packed with lemon slices.
2. A further jar of green olives that had been water cured outside ( ~ 5 – 15 degrees).
3. A further two jars of black olives that had been water cured outside, no lemon.

Allegedly these are ready in 4 days, or weekend of 17th June, and will keep in the fridge for up to a year.

Based on the kalamata-style olive recipe, using dark-red olives that had been water cured outside, I prepared a further 10 or so jars of black olives in 2L of metric equivalent brining solution of 790mL cool water, 95g salt and 210mL of red-wine vinegar. These returned to the shed given current temperature outside. These are expected to be ready in a month, or 13 July, and will keep in the cool for a year if the jars remain airtight.

Jars were immersed for 20 seconds in a boiling water bath for a crude sterilization prior.