Year after year in my new home here in Northern California, I feel myself sinking down roots and developing new traditions. One of them is to cure green olives, which begins for me in early October.
On some crisp autumn Saturday, I will head out into one of the many public parks near my home that someone wisely planted with olive trees a generation ago. Sometimes I go solo, sometimes with friends. When I return, college football is in full swing, and I watch the games as I sort through my haul and prepare the brine.
And after that first season, I’ll eat a handful or two of last year’s olives as a snack while the work is progressing. It’s a quiet little tradition, but it’s grown on me: Cool sunny October days mean gathering green olives and watching a Big 10 football game (I am a Wisconsin graduate).
On one such Saturday, I went out to a public grove I knew would be loaded: Olives are alternate-bearing crops, with one year’s crop thin, the other flush. It should have been a flush year for a Mission olive tree in the park, but it was either picked clean or failed to set. No matter, there were 30 other olive trees to choose from.
Most were rotten with olive fly, whose larvae burrow into olives and leave a beige scar where they entered. Tiny dots on an olive are OK, but that telltale scar means there is a visitor lurking within your olive.
Another hazard are the dry olives. Trees forced to live by their own wits — away from regularly watered grass — are stressed, and their olives shrivel early. Shriveled olives are usable, but they bruise rapidly and don’t make a clean green olive.
I still found several pounds of good green olives that day. Back at home, I set to separating them.
I separated them into small, medium and large olives — I have no idea what variety they are, as I don’t know how to tell the difference. I didn’t have enough large ones to make its own batch, so I mixed them with the mediums. I now had a choice of cures: brine, or lye. Yes, you can cure olives with lye.
The olives you see at the top of this post are cured in brine. This is my preferred method, as it is low-maintenance and results in a super-tangy, salty olive that keeps for more than a year and cries out for beer or ouzo. And I like ouzo. A lot.
Brine-curing is stupid easy, but takes a long time. You make a brine of 1/4 cup kosher salt (Diamond Crystal) to 4 cups water, plus 1/2 cup of vinegar: white wine, cider or simple white vinegar. Submerge the olives in this brine and top with cheesecloth or something else to keep them underwater. Do not cut them.
Cover the top of the container loosely (I use large, 1 gallon glass jars
) and put the jar in a dark, cool place. That’s it. Check it from time to time — meaning every week or so at first. The brine should darken, and you might get a scum on the top. That’s OK.
What’s going on is that your olives are fermenting; it is the fermentation that breaks down the oleuropein over time. That’s why I never wash my olives before curing — I want those natural yeasts on the outside of the olive to do their magic.
I change my brine every month or two, when it begins to look extra nasty. I don’t re-rinse the olives, during changes, either, because I want the residue to act as a “starter” to get the next batch of brine going.
Keep in mind you will be in for the long haul: Olives picked in October are typically ready to eat in May or June. It’s a lot like making wine.
Add seasonings after the New Year, otherwise you risk too much spice and not enough olive flavor; this is especially true of chiles. If you find you’ve gone too far, change the brine and don’t add new seasonings, and let it steep for a few weeks. That should calm things down a bit.
For those of you living in olive country, there’s no reason not to gather your own to cure green olives. In most places, they are free for the taking.
And once the olives are finished, there is a certain show-off factor when you pull out a plate of olives you cured yourself. “These are your olives? Wow.” Plus, you can flavor them any way you like, which is a bonus.
For the vast majority of you who don’t live in olive country, you can order fresh olives online, but I can’t personally recommend any companies because I have never used them. If any of you have ordered fresh olives online and can vouch for a company, please let me know.
Incidentally, this method only works to cure green olives. If you want to cure black olives, my method is to oil-cure olives.
I slit all my unripe green olives before finding this site. Have put them in a salt brine today. Suggestions?
My olives are ready to be taken out of their oil brine. Should I rinse them and store them in a jar of water?
Jay: No. I would make a fresh brine with flavors you like and store it in that.
Thank you! This was my try and they are pretty good. Looking forward to the next harvest.
I hope everyone is well.
I live in Tempe AZ lots of olive trees this is the time of year to pick it’s very hot but onto the recipe for green olives . Get yourself a olive/cherry pitter . Pit the olives cover with water change water daily for 10 to 14 days depending on the level of bitterness you like. Me 14 days I don’t like them bitter. Transfer to mason jars and fill with a salt brine .i don’t use any vinegar don’t like the taste. Keep in the fridge enjoy. Removing the pits speeds it way ?
Hi Hank – this is my first attempt at curing olives (water method). I want to try different herbs and flavourings in several jars and I’m keen to try some with chilli. Can I use fresh chilli or does it need to be dried? I’m not sure that if it is fresh, it may become ‘sludgy’. Great site, by the way! Regards
Linda: I always used dried chiles.
@Mike
Yes……but I like them on the bitter side.
I usually find after about 2 weeks they are to my liking.
Maybe the type of of olives and keeping them at (cool) room temperature influences the speed at what they are edible?
Rich, you say you start tasting them after a week! Is this a weeks after the crush and surely if this is the case there would still be an immense amount of bitternes.
Currently in the Southern Hemisphere it is green olive harvest season and we are in Covid-19 lockdown so I have plenty of time to prep my olives .
I have used the water/ brine method for several seasons now. I always come back to this site every year (because I forget the brine recipe).I like this method because you can get quick results.
I usually pick the olive when the 1st olives on the tree start to ripen. One season I was a bit late and picked mostly ripe olives and the results weren’t that good . However the odd ripe olive here and there in a jar doesn’t do it any harm.
I usually pick about a bucket load each season . This is enough to last the whole year with the odd jar given away to friends and family.
Having a bucket load each season it would take too long cutting each olive so I get quite industrial and crush the olives on a chopping board with a smooth riverstone the fits nicely in my hand. I doesn’t take long to learn how hard you need to hit them to open them up (without crushing them too much) .
I don’t have enough room in the fridge for the whole bucket so I find a cool place to put them. The results seem fine to me. I start tasting then after about a week (sometimes with a pinch of salt) until they get to my preferred level of bitterness . Once ready brine them with herbs, chilies, lemon, garlic (google how to stop garlic going blue/green) etc… and after another few weeks the first ones are ready to go. (although the longer they are in the brine the better they taste)
Hank! Thanks for this. We used the salt water brine method you described, and it has worked well. I am wondering whether you have a recipe recommendation for a brine for long term storage after curing (up to a year, out of the refrigerator). Thanks. Jon
I tried Kalamata olives, green, in water first time with a handful of olives from my tree in the backyard. I sliced them. Changing water twice a day. The cut has gone brown and most of the olives are getting more and more dark spots on the surface. Is this normal or is it rot?
Oli: It happens. I no longer bother with the water cure. I only brine or lye cure green olives now.
Hi Hank
Have used the fermentation method and have a huge tub of olives in a cupboard in my kitchen – realise there is still a way to go but once we get to May or June, what then? How do we get from a big tub to small jars – do we have to rinse them – what’s best to store them in, in the small jars? Many thanks
Sue
Hi Hank,
Towards the end of my first cured in brine method, all seems to be going well!! My question is at the end of this process, what do you do to them to store? Rinse and put in olive oil, store in fridge?? Not sure how to store, thanks
Stacey: yes, you can do that. I always refrigerate them, but if you had a cool basement it’d work, too.
Once the water cured olives are placed in the salt solution, how long do I need to wait before they are ready for eating?
Trish: About a week.
Two Questions:
#1 Why can you not use ripened (black) olives in place of green in this recipe?
#2 I left my green olives in water, changing daily for a week, then forgot about them in back of refrigerator for two months!…. they look OK and don’t smell… can I proceed with brining or must I throw them away
Kristin: No. 1, that is a different cure. You can do the long, brine cure on the black olives but not the water method. No.2, maybe? You’ll know if they’re off. There is no hidden problem there. If they seem fine, they’re fine.
I live in a temperate climate, Queensland, current average temp is 75 Fahrenheit. Should I store in room temp or refrigerate?
Wendy: I would put them in a refrigerator, or a cool basement.
I have olives in a salt water brine. They have been in the brine for about 2 1/2 months. I change the brine once a month. I cut the olives with a knife,and they seem to be going ok,white film on top of the brine. How long can I leave them in this brine method before eating them.
Jay: I never cut olives in brine, so you are on your own there. But taste them from time to time, and when they taste good to you, they are ready. Sometimes, with uncut olives, it can take many months.