Home Curing Olives

Home curing olives

Sevillano Tree

I have extensively documented my love of all things olive, and my experience curing fresh olives at home.  It’s a project that takes a couple months of love and dedication, but will provide you with a year of enjoyment.  (And great holiday gifts to give out).

My personal exclusive supplier of fresh olives is a California grower, Penna, who harvest and also process their own in a variety of flavors, available to the public from their website.

The fresh (uncured) olives are only available once per year, with greens coming in September, and blacks in October or November.   I only purchase Sevillano olives, part of the family of “Mission” olives, which were initially cultivated by the Spanish missions in California during the 1700s.  The Mission olives are native to California, and are thought to be an offshoot of Moroccan olives, brought originally to Mexico by Spanish explorers.

The Sevillanos  are available in several sizes of the greens, the blacks are larger, this year, some as large as small plums (see pic below).

This year I am doing black ones for the first time, since they have been on the tree longer, they are a little less bitter than raw green ones, but still need to have their bitterness leeched out of them.

Sevillano blacks are especially suited to one of the easiest cures of all, drying them in pickling salt for a month, they shrink and wrinkle and take on a nutty flavor.  Great for snacks, salads, or bread recipes.

I’m hoping to nail the art this season, as I have olive trees on my new condiment ranch, and am looking forward to curing my own.  The trees can grow quite tall, but have to be trimmed down to 12-15′ feet, as that’s about the highest height that the olives can be harvested safely by hand, with a ladder.

Home curing olives

Fresh greens

 

Home curing olives

Fresh blacks

 

Home curing olives

Olives in brine

 

Home curing olives

Blacks in salt cure

 

 

Home curing olives

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *