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 curing my own 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’ve eaten 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. Use the same brine as in the end of the water-cure: 1/4 cup kosher salt to 4 cups water, plus 1/2 cup of 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 those massive jars from the Costco marinated artichoke hearts) 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 forage for your own 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 for green olives. If you want to cure black olives, my method is to oil-cure olives.
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.
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.
I bought some jumbo Seville olives from the Olive Pit in Corning, CA. I’ve had them soaking in water since 9/22/2019 with daily changes and at first the olive smell was pleasant from the water. Now, it’s pretty horrible but the olives are still pretty bitter. Should I switch to brine? Should I throw them away? December 22 was 3 months in a water bath and it’s not doing it… I appreciate the opinion!
Jake: OMG yes! Toss them. The water method requires olives that are slashed open or crushed, and only lasts a week before they rot. The brine method starts in brine and stays in brine and stakes months.
I’m in the cooler south of Australia, I used the brine method and was too lazy to change it – 8 or so months later they taste good and I’m gonna store them in olive oil with lemon rind, bay leaf etc. So cool to find an easy recipe for the few little olives I get before the parrots finish them off. Thanks
Hi, I start to cure olives I will try your recipe…do I need to get them in water and change it everyday or get to the point to get onto the salt and vinegar and change water every month ? Or every week?..
Hi Hank,
Two neighbors picked some green olives from my tree. They brought me two containers of the finished product. One was in a glass jar. The other olives were in a large plastic container. Both in water. After a few weeks after opening them the glass jar olives had some stuff floating at the top of the water. The neighbor said they used lemon juice while making them. I had stored them at room temp. Ate about 2/3 of the glass jar so far. Now i read online about home jarring botulism risks. And a little worried about eating the rest :-/ the large plastic container seems to not have any lemon juice in it. Guess the other neighbor used lye. They gave me those about one month after we picked the tree. How worried should i be about possible botulism contamination ? What is the best way to store them? The glass jar one seems to have an old and slightly rusted lid. Those olives seem slightly smashed. The plastic container ones were slit. My neighbors are old people and they make this stuff every season. Meanwhile i am like a stranger in a strange land. Barely speak the local language, literally.
After one month my bribe had not just “scum” on it, but mold! Why did that happen? Can the olives be saved?
Joan: That happens. Pick it off and carry on.
Any substitutes for vinegar in the brine method? I am avoiding it.
Roberto: Nope. Sorry.
To brine a larger amount (twenty pounds?) do I just double all the brine amount or is it only necessary to have the liquid cover the olives? We have moved to a property with three olive trees so there are a lot of olives here!
Hi, what happens if I don’t cut or break the olives before curing.
Bill: Then a simple water cure will not work. A brine cure will, however.
Hello. I am wondering if you can help me.
I am in MN and my supplier of raw olives passed away last Spring.
Do you have a source which can ship a case to MN?
I would appreciate any info you might share.
Thanks so much,
Stephen R Mike
702 Delaware Avenue
Saint Paul, MN 55107
651.303.1172
Excited it is almost olive time again! I followed your guide last year, smashing green olives and changing water daily for ~30 days. Very happy with the results but a few did come out mushy.
I used the slice method on a 1/3 of them also, but I sliced width wise. They were bitter near the outside ends, lengthwise must be the trick.
I’m planning on smashing my bounty again w/ the concave bottom of a bottle and water curing.
Great site ! Thanks!
THX HANK!
First learned of you when developing my fowl neighborhood (chooks & ducks). Now you first popped up when actually looking to cure logs (may move up 😉 now in Sacto; shall apply this Fall, as i consider marine climates.
Cheers
Tim O’Tater
Hi Hank! I started a batch of green olives last November using your brining method and everything went well, it’s now June and they have turned a brownish color and they taste good but they’re still hard! Has this ever happened to you? I wonder if they’ll ever get softer. I guess I’ll just let them sit for another month and see what happens!
Christine
Christine: They’re supposed to stay firm with this cure. All this cure does is remove bitterness.
I tried your water method with both black and green Frantoio olives (separately) from our trees. They are absolutely delicious. The best recipe I’ve tried. And there’s hardly any environmental pollution from too much salt. Thank you! How long will they keep out of the fridge?
You didn’t say how long the olives should stay in the brine before they are ready to eat. Both methods please.
After the brine green olives are finely ready, what is good water:salt ratio for storing them? The same as for curing them, 1/4c salt to 4c water?
Lucinda: Typically I use 1/4 cup of kosher salt (Diamond Crystal brand) to 1 quart of water.
Hi, I’m in the southern hemisphere (New Zealand). I picked my olives in April/May last autumn and I’ve been water curing them since then. The olives taste great! I’ve changed the brine a few times during the process, and the brine is now a medium brown colour. Should I change the brine? I was planning on changing it as it’s so brown, but now that I’ve realised that the olives taste good I’m wondering whether it’s necessary to change the brine. What would you do?? Thanks for your help.
Anna: I do change the brine a couple times, mostly when it gets moldy.
Cutting olives for water curing is a pain – quite literally if you have arthritis or gout. When I moved to Portugal and started curing my own olives, I had many painful hours cutting olives to cure before I discovered that the local hardware stores sell cutting tubes to slit the olives and, if the tube is positioned in the mouth of a 5-liter water bottle, the slit olives drop straight into water. Discovering that my neighbors used old plastic water bottles for curing was also a breakthrough for me, because I never could weight down those olives in a bucket using a plate or the like without some escaping and floating to the surface. The narrow necks of the bottles reduce the exposure to air, molds, etc. Pictures of the slitting tubes can be seen on an old blog post I wrote about my own adventures with olives: https://myownprivateportugal.blogspot.com/2016/12/olives-for-all.html
Hey Hank. Curious about brining green olives as I just saw them at the market, however something about the method doesn’t seem right. Your recipe includes vinegar, but wouldn’t adding vinegar inhibit fermentation?
Pawel: It’s not much vinegar. Only enough to acidify the brine a bit.
In my country in Jordan , some people used to add alittle sugar to the brine solution , this will make the olive firm , some people add curcum to give the olive a beutiful color
Thanks for this great post. One question – why do you only score the olives for the water method and not the brine method?
Robyn: The water method is for quick eating olives, and honestly I rarely do that anymore. I normally do a batch for brine and I lye cure the rest.
Just found fresh green olives in PA. I’m going to try the water brine because I’m too curious and impatient t to wait until Easter! Thanks for the recipe! And thanks for all the olive tips. Separating will now be easier and hopefully pest-free. (eek)
Guess what? I just found green olives – on sale no less – at my supermarket here in Chicago. Pete’s Fresh Market often has unusual produce – I’ve even seen fresh dates there. So, I am going to give this a try. Thanks Hank!
Just received my order of Sevillano olives from California grower, Penna Olives. They have them right now in varying sizes. Later, they will have black olives. http://www.greatolives.com
Cure olives using raw apple cider vinegar in place of regular vinegar! This will make your olives alkaline forming and very very healthy. You will never be able to find alkaline forming olives in the supermarket or anywhere else. They also taste amazing and is Highly recommended for its health benefits.
Harvesting the first olive tree at my church where I direct music, All Saints Episcopal Church, Tarpon Springs, Fl.
Easter olives next year. Wow that long!
Thanks for the info. Will try it.
I have enormous green olives and I have a lot of them. Just moved into a new home so this is a delightful surprise. They are beginning to get slightly soft and turning slightly rosey. All the articles I’ve read say to wait until August to October in Northern California before you pick. I feel like it is time to pick and cure. I’m very interested in your guidance.
I was told the olives growing in my yard here in Phoenix Arizona are edible How do I find that out for sure
Mark: All olives are edible.
I’m trying to do my Olives for the first time. Do you think paper towels would be okay to hold the Olives under water?
Genevieve: No. You need something that keeps out air.
Hi Hank – I’ve had my green olives in water since October (changing every-other-day or so and then every-other-week or so and same water for the past month or so. Bit into one and it is no longer bitter, so moving to your recommended brine. How long do they brine for before we can enjoy them?
Beth: A week or two.
Curious how these should be stored once done. If the brine gets mold on top throughout the process, what will prevent this when stored long-term?
Tony: Nothing. But the mold doesn’t really develop much in the fridge. I’ve had green olives for 2 years before they got all soft.
Thanks for the guidance! Olives seem to be perfect now (2/23 after going in brine late Oct). We did the brine only approach.
But now do I leave in the brine in general for ever or do I need to transfer them to a pure water or other medium? Seems like they’d end up too salty if they stay in brine indefinitely??
Charlie: Transfer to a weak brine (weaker than the one it’s been in), plus seasonings.
Hello, I’ve got a bucket of brine cured green olives ready to bottle. Do you bottle in brine or oil?
Robyn: Brine.
I started my brine in early Nov. I just changed it 12/29. Its looks good, just a few darker olives. Should I throw those out? The recipe mentions to season after the new year. What type of seasoning should be used.
Brenda: Yeah, I toss the really dark olives. Seasoning is up to you. Maybe citrus rind, chiles, bay leaves…
Hi, My green olives have been in a salt water brine (no vinegar) for approx 6 months now. As i put them in 5 litre bottles im wondering what I should do next. As i was wanting to jar them up. Would it be right if I took them out (washed them?) Then add spices an garlic then jar them up with an oil or vinegar? Im unsure how I should proceed or just take out of the large jars as we use them? Many thanks
Sonya: Taste one, and if it’s as “sweet” (not bitter) as you want, then move to a weak brine with some vinegar and herbs of your choice. I like bay, chile and oregano.
I have been brine curing my green olives for 6 weeks and am ready to do the final brine with herbs, vinegar and olive oil. They have been in my dark cold closet for the 6 weeks. Once I add the new brine, vinegar and olive oil do I have to keep them refrigerated or is my cold dark closet fine? How long will they keep without refrigerating? Once I start eating them, should I refrigerate? Thanks so much for your help
Nancy: Your olives aren’t near to being cured yet. Don’t go to the final brine until early spring.
I brined the olives on 10/9/17. I just checked them today on 12/19/17 and there is some mold sitting on the dish keeping the olives submerged. Does this mean my batch is ruined? please help. I am making another stronger brine of 1 1/2 cups kosher salt and 1 gallon of water. Should I keep some of the current brine that the olives are in now? the appearance of the olives look fine. I’m just afraid to make everyone sick.
Maryann: You’re fine. Mold happens. Pull it off.
I can’t tell whether I already sent this, so apologies if it’s a duplicate. Wondering whether the brine cure needs to have air or no air for the fermentation. Most instructions I’ve seen don’t specify. Some say cover the brine with oil. Some say fill it to the lid. Some say leave a gap, some say let gas escape for a few days, some say seal it up and store. UC Davis doesn’t seem to specify, unless I just missed it.
Cordelia: I put cheesecloth over the jar, but leave it open for a month or so. Then I skim the scum that forms and put a lid on loosely.
Any risk of botulism with the brining method?
Heather: Not as far as I know. These methods are based off those from UC-Davis, and they would warn people if there were a food safety issue, I’d think.
Do you have to use kosher salt, or is Himalayan or plain table salt ok to use?
Sarah: You have to use kosher. It’s a weight thing. Himalayan has impurities in it than can make things weird, and table salt is too finely cut and has iodide and anti-caking agents in it.
Can you cure olives that are half purple and half green?
Julie: I don’t.
I love olive trees. And olives. So when my husband and I bought a house a year ago I planted three (I know I’ll probably regret it later, or start my own olive oil business). In the meantime, though, I’ve found a few olive trees in a local park that I have been raiding and experimenting with. I’ve used this article as a go-to for it, so I figured I’d post my results.
Water-cured: I tried a jar in the fridge and one in the cabinet. The cabinet cured ones were ready in about 5 weeks, while the refrigerated ones were still super bitter, so I pulled it out and tossed it in the cabinet also (I was impatient).
Salt/vinegar Brine: I reread the article and *just now* noticed it said not to cut the brined olives. I cut them and 4-5 weeks in they are almost ready to eat. I’ll give them one more week then I’ll to put a fresh brine on them and some herbs and peppercorns, maybe some lemon peel.
Salt only brine: Another site suggested this. I started these a week after the other brined olives, and they seem to be coming along about the same pace, although they’ve wrinkled a bit, so we’ll see what the final product looks like.
Oil cured: these ones supposedly take forever,, so it’s a total experiment.
I picked olives from trees in a public area, alongside a road. Should these be washed first? Also, the tree had green olives, purplish-black olives and everything in between. Should I only use the totally green olives? Some are starting to blush into the purple color that will turn black.
Eve: Use only the green olives. Yes, wash them.
I’m feeling a little bit at sea, and am hoping for a little advice. We fell in love with wonderful olives we had in Morocco a few years ago, and in a late-night moment of “I-have-all-the-free-time-in-the-world” madness, I bought some green olives, and hunted around the internet. I opted to water cure them, and a month later I’m content.
I’m not clear, though – I can divvy these up (17 pounds was the smallest order I could make) into different glass containers, that’s fine. BUT, if I follow some sort of brine (storage) recipe, how long do they sit for? I’ve read articles that say put some olives in what seems to be a reasonably weak brine solution, and then add assorted spices. Ok. But then when are these green olives ready to eat? I’d leave anything I canned to mellow for a couple of weeks, but have also read to leave them sit in the brine and spices until spring or early summer.
I think I’ve been canning for so long that my reflexes are off with olives. I’m uneasy about leaving something open (ie not vacuum sealed) for months on end, and other than Morocco, my olive experiences have been with industrial varieties, which I haven’t particularly liked. The Moroccan ones were fresh tasking and lively, in part the spices, but in part I think not lye cured. They tasted fresh and new. Like lovely tiny carrots and baby eggplants from your garden. Not heavy and processed.
Sorry, long post. Any ideas to guide me?
Patricia: You can eat the olives as soon as you can eat the olives, if you know what I mean. It’s a bitterness thing. The brine and spices make them better, but they will always evolve in the jar. And you’re fine not canning them. They will change over time, fermenting a bit, but the brine is your savior. Freshness in olives is a product of either winter olives (eating them right after they’ve cured), or those cured with lye, which is an ancient tradition.
When adding spices how much is enough?
Tammy: Up to you. Remember you can always add, but you cannot subtract.
Hi Hank,
We are using your recipe for the 17 lbs of olives we purchased from Chaffin Orchards. We are going to jar them up today. How much of the brine do you think we should make up for that many olives? Should we just make up a batch as we go along?
Thanks!
For the brine only method do you still have to cut the olives?
Lisa: No.
attempting the water only cure. The olives are starting to go to olive-y color, with some significantly darker around the cuts, but I notice some bubbly/fizzy action in the jars. Some sort of fermentation I guess. I haven’t seen mention of fizz/ferment in the water only ones, so I’m wondering if I took a wrong turn.
Thoughts?
Caordelia: I do this in the fridge. I am guessing you aren’t? Shouldn’t be any fermentation in the fridge…
Hi,
I’m curing my first ever green olives. I’m using Sevillas, and sliced a slit in each olive, then placed them in water. I’ve been soaking them in water for almost two weeks now, and they are somewhat less bittern than when I started. They are very crunchy, although they are starting to turn olive green on the slit half and are softening a bit. I’m assuming the color evens out over time. My question is, how long does it take for them to soften up a bit so they aren’t so crunchy to eat?
I was in Cyprus this summer and loved their home cured olives. They claim to only soak for ten days, then go straight to the brine and they’re ready to eat. But their olives were quite a bit softer than what mine are right now. Although by July, their olives had been curing for several months. Hmmm.
Thanks for the information, and any hints about how long until they soften up are appreciated!
Susan: Your olives were clearly very unripe. They’ll cure eventually, but you’ll need to give it more time.
I bought a 17lb box of green olives, sliced them all once and put them in water in 4 1 gallon jars. My fridge isn’t big enough so I put them on the counter. After a week they were still bitter but obviously less so. I put a quart in brine and vinegar and that flavor reduced the bitterness. After 2 weeks the bitterness in the olives soaking in water was almost completely gone, although I do like a bit of it so may be biased. I could eat them just like this but I just some in 4 quart jars with brine, 1 with lemon juice, 1 with lemon and garlic, 1 with tangerine balsamic, 1 with brown rice vinegar. I will taste them tomorrow and then try herbs also. I can’t wait to try curing ripe olives. Thanks for all the info.
Can you split the brined cured for a faster result?
John: Not that I am aware of.
Thanks for the quick reply, Hank. I’ll get started on them now. Cheers!
I bought 30 lbs. of green Sevillano colosal olives from Penna Great Olives. $100.00 including shipping. They arrived in perfect condition. I cure them in lye using my dad’s old recipe. Awesome every time.
Hi Hank,
I got a bunch of delicious green olives to cure. Thanks for the recipe.
I was also confused about the write-up. It could use a transitional sentence or a header between the water vs salt cured. And one thing that wasn’t clear to me–are the (cut) water-cured olives ready to eat at the same time as the (uncut) salt-brined olives?
Thanks,
Matt
Matt: Nope. Water cured, with the cut, are ready much faster, but they are tricky and get oxidized easily. Brine cured take months, but are easier and last longer.
Thanks for the article, Hank. I just recently moved to Fairfield in and have been wanting to jar my own olives. Can’t wait to try this.
Thanks for your recipe! I found some olives from an online producs website (I’ve ordered other stuff from them before). I am however concerned about the olive fly. How do you tell if it’s just a dot or blemish vs. the work of the fly infestation? I want to be sure but I don’t want to throw any good olives away on accident!
Ash: There is a telltale mark I have a picture of in the post. Memorize that mark.
Dear Hank,
One of the most exciting things about recently moving to northern California was seeing that olives grow here. I grew up in Buffalo N.Y. Italian/Sicilian community and have since been in love with green cured olives! I want to cure my own but have not been able to find them fresh. I’m not even sure when they are harvested. Would you be able to point me in the right direction? Thank you!
Stephanie: Look in public parks here in the Sacramento area, or farmer’s markets. Or you can get them online and they’ll ship overnight.
I followed these instructions exactly and my green olives were fresh. However after the 1st week in brine my olives are going brown just where they have been cut. Is this normal?
Andrea: You cut brined olives? You’re not supposed to. You cut water-cured olives. Those do brown very easily, alas. I rarely make them that way any longer.
I made a batch of brined olives (with lemon, ginger, dried chiles, and bay leaves) two Octobers ago and they are still sitting in my basement.. They smell fine, there is some scum on the top and a few active bubbles. When I open the airlock lid it releases a little bit of pressure but nothing explosive. Do you think they are still okay for consumption? Is there anything I should be looking for that would a major DO NOT EAT sign?
Grace: Hmmm… I might toss them, because they could be mushy, even if safe to eat.
I have been changing the brine every day as per another sites instructions. However my oliives have gone wrinkley and are a bit discoloured. They started out like yours but now have brown marks almost like bruises. Should I continue or discard them?
Hi, can you please tell me if the water cured olives need to sit in the brine for a certain length of time before they are ready or is this just to preserve them? Also, with the brine cured olives, do you need to slice these as well or just put them straight in the brine mix?
Helen: Water cured olives need about a week in brine before eating, but it is all about preserving them afterwards. Brine cure olives do not need to be sliced.
Hi Hank,
What else do you look for when picking your olives? How do they look, should they have clear liquid or cloudy liquid inside, what about waiting until they go purple?
I’ve just done the smash method for a batch before reading your post, but have a bunch more trees I get get more olives from. Prepared to keep them for the long haul. They were purple but so much water leached out the colour that they went green again. The yeasts have been stripped out I suspect so I’ll put a dab of sourkraut juice in to see if it kick starts the ferment process.
They taste more like an olive now but very watery. Next step if brining & ferment. Will see how they turn out.
CK
CK: I just look for healthy looking green olives. I’ve never checked what the juice looks like. This method doesn’t work as well for black olives.
Do you put a lid on the jar or just the cheese cloth when using the water method?
Katherine: I put a lid on it.
What if I have a layer of mold on top of the brine? Is that the same a “scum”?
Heather: it happens. Just pull it off.
Great site, well organized, told me everything I wanted to know. I live in Big Ten country, MSU grad, and of course no olive trees. tough year for the Spartans. We have a large chain, small grocery named Aldis. Great kalamata, and Mediterreanean mix kalamatas. May order fresh olives online. Thanks for the info.
Didn’t work. The water treatment was fine for a month and the olives were great! Then added the brine, checked after two days and they turned to mush in two days!
We first lye cured olives 2 years ago. Worked well. This year we are also trying a brine method. The 1/2 gal. jars are kept in an un-airconditioned but well insulated storage room off the kitchen. Each jar has now developed a THIN skim of greenish/blueish (mold) on top. It looks granular on the top olives. (Maybe the pickling salt was not fully dissolved?). Brine was changed at 7 days and,then after a month. Hubby sampled and says the olives are less bitter but not enough yet. The first week , the olives were noticeably fermenting. There is no discernable fermentation now.
-What should I do about the mold? Will adding vinegar avoid mold?
-Should jars be filled to brim to allow let air contact? Or leave head room for fermentation?
-What wisdom does anyone have on the fermentation process itself? Should it have stopped already??
-Can oil safely be added now w/o developing botulism in there??
-Should these be in fridge while still de-bittering?
Thanks!
Using the first method but 4 days in and my olives are darkly oxidized where I sliced them. Placed them in water immediately but a friend tells me that using NorCal chlorinated water may be the problem. Has anyone else found this to be a problem using the water bath to brine method? For now I will keep going forward with the water-rinse to brine method as an experiment. I have a heavy producing olive tree and could only use half of the olives due to worms too so don;t have as much to experiment with as I originally thought. Think I will do a straight long brine with my next batch.
I have been lye-curing olives for decades as the water-cured (French-style) methods are just not consistent and subject to many variables. Sorry to say my experience with this recipe was no different than others that have been attempted. Yes, water-curing is labor and time-intensive, and they can be absolutely wonderful if successful. However, these olives developed “Leopard Spots” very quickly. The fruit was hand-picked, carefully sorted, and each checked for Olive Fruit fly stings. Also, bottled water was used to change daily for more than 4 weeks (no vacation here!). Even so the olives were still quite bitter before the brine. The brine concentration is also very salty and after 2 weeks in the refrigerator, the taste and eye appeal was not particularly good . I know this is a standard technique and have no idea why it went south. As experience teaches us, I would encourage others to try this method as a lye-cure alternative but start with a liter or two of olives. For now, I will stay with the reliable lye-cure.
Because you said it takes longer in the brine, I thought, than it does in plain water and rinsing often. Can I put them back in the salt brine again, then, and not slit them?
Should I split them?
Christine: no. Just crack or make a slit with a knife to the pit.
I used lye for 15 hours and then rinsed for 8 days and am now in the salt brine for 48 hours, but my green olives are still bitter. Can I slit them and start the water-curing process (keeping them in the fridge) until the bitterness is gone? Or are they ruined? They’re still nice and firm.
Christine: You could restart the process. But if they are only a little bitter still, I’d let the brine take care of them. That softens bitterness pretty well.
How do you store the olives after using the brine method, and how long can you store them for out of the fridge (in a cool, dark place)?
Arielle: For almost a year in a cool basement. They’ll get a little gnarly on top, but the ones under the brine are fine.
Al, you really need to crack or slice each olive. I bought a wooden dowel about 1.5 inches in diameter from the Italian food store some years ago that I use to crack mine, that’s the way my grandmother used to do it 55-60 years ago. Slicing will work, but I’m old school I guess.
I have my large green olives in a course rock salt brine now for about a month. I continually drain off the water and add salt as need. I noticed you mention to crack or slice the olives prior to placing into the salt brine. I DID NOT. Will this process effect the taste of the olives or should I do something differently? Please advise………….
I started curing olives by soaking in water. .do they have to be refrigerated? I left them out and today they smell a bit spoiled. .is that normal?
Batya: Yes, they should be in the fridge.
Hank, I liked your suggestion to do the cool water curing in the fridge. My last olives were a little too soft. What about the brine curing? Should they be in the fridge? Will they ferment properly? I didn’t cut or notch them at all. Smalls and mediums. Thanks!
I just started a little over 6 gallons of olives in brine. I didn’t add vinegar or spices yet, just saltwater brine. I also cut an “X” in the end of each olives, which I hope is enough exposure to leach the bitter compounds.
Do you think if I dump the brine in about a month that I can then mix the saltwater-vinegar-spices brine and refill the jars?
Also, I imagine the process will take less time since the olives are all sliced, yes?
Thank you for this information!
Erin
Hello,
Once the water cure is complete do I still need to keep them in the fridge while they brine?
Thanks,
Ziad: I do.
do you need to cut the olives when you use the brine method? seriously you don’t wash them? ever? if so, when? thanks!
Joanna: No, and no. But if you feel like washing them, go right ahead.
For a health reason how could I replace the salt? With potassium or vinegar ?
Jane: You can’t. Sorry.
Are you still curing olives and do you sell them? The only natural cured olives I have found are Graber from California. My cousin used to order them by the case. I love them.
Okay, I’ll try to be more patient. Thanks!
Hank, I have completed the water curing and brining process for green Barouni olives I purchased online from Chaffin Family Orchards. Even after water curing for 30 days and the subsequent transfer to brine, my olives are still very bitter. They also have a very tough texture, not smooth and buttery like the store bought green olives I am used to. Is this just the nature of water cured olives or did I perhaps mess up the process?
Also, I love the gourmet olives I purchase that come in olive oil with various seasonings. Is there a way to mimick this at home?
Thanks!
Emily: Give it time. It can take months for the bitterness to leave. Once they are to your liking, then add the flavorings you like.
Hi Hank, Olives cured in salt brine for two months seem done. Can I store them in a seasoned water & vinegar solution without salt now? I don’t want them to get more salty flavor.
ciao, my father has made the olives for many years now its my turn to continue the process, i went 30 days of changing water in the crock pots, using super colossal olives, now add brine to the crock pot and let sit in brine? or brine and jar now? i do remember my dad adding garlic fennel and sea salt to the bare olives and then jarring, but what part of the process is this act? grazie amico
Giovanni: Taste an olive. If they are tolerably bitter – they can still be a little bitter at this point — move to a brine. If they’re still unbearable, keep changing the water.
Thanks very much, I had remembered stopping @ a rest stop in Northern Valley and seeing the trees fruited there. Their natural off-the-tree taste was nasty. None of my Rhodale publications contained a brine recipe.
I have just completed the lye process on my green olives, I started the brine yesterday and this morning the olives have blisters on them. And they taste a little bitter. My question is did I do something wrong and are they going to be okay to eat?
Susan: Blisters? That’s a new one. Not sure. Sounds like maybe too much lye?
I have started to brine my olives as per a recipe from the ucberkley site. I am 2 weeks through the process and I see brown bloches on the olives. are they suppposed to discolor like that?
David: It happens. I get annoyed by that, and I toss the really blotchy ones, but in the end a few blemishes are OK.
Hi – I’ve done the water cured method followed by brine from your site before, but I misunderstood and brined them in jars for a long time after they were water cured. They were delicious, and I was wondering how long you actually brine them before eating them once they are water cured? Thanks!
Hi Hank,
I have an offbeat question for you: For years I have loved Mezzetta Colossal Sicilian Style Olives. My greatest fears have come true: Mezzetta is discontinuing this style of olive.
I’m desperate to mimic the “juice” in which the olives are bottled. I’m not sure if this is a brine or just a juice into which they put the olives after they are cured. The juice is phenomenal. Mezzetta only says “spices” in the list of contents. It says only vinegar but isn’t specific. I can identify by sight some of the spices…there’s definitely red chile pepper, bay, garlic, fennel, coriander…not sure what else.
Hank, I’d gladly send you a bottle of these olives if you could lend some expert advice.
I really want to mimic these olives if I can.
Mark
I have curing my olives (unk variety) for four weeks in a salt water bath, in glass containers. This is my 3rd year trying this. This year, the olives were a little greener than before, but some had a slight rose blush to them. After the 2nd salt bath change, a ‘scum’ started around the edge of the water that looked like a mold almost…fuzzy but flat. At the next change, I washed the containers and added new salt bath. Same thing. Just tasted one at the 4 wk Mark to see if the bitterness was gone, it was….but….the olive tasted metallic! Tried a second one..same thing. The olives have been in glass containers with another glass container on top to hold the olives under water. They also have not darkened like the previous years. Are they safe to continue with? Kinda scared of killing off family and friends! Thanks for the help.
Hi…I brined my olives using the water/kosher salt method changing weekly. They are coming along nicely. My question is: When should I add the olive oil, white wine vinegar & whatever other “goodies” I desire? Would this be considered a final brine? I would like to give as gifts for Christmas. Thanks for any suggestions or ideas, Carolyn
cksspace: Sorry, they will not be ready until about Easter. That’s the drawback of this process.
Thank you for answering, Hank! Both the tiny dots and the tan/brownish spots seem to be fairly common from reading the other comments. If the thin, dark line through the flesh and dark area around the pit are caused by olive fly, would the larvae be visible with the naked eye? Grateful for any info, jewel
I guess I should have mentioned that almost all the olives developed spots during the first day of the water soak. Where I cut into the olive was where a dot was that became a spot. The spots are all over them, however. Thanks again, jewel
I’ve seen little spots, too. They don’t seem to affect the olive, but they are a blemish. I’d toss those with too many. Sure it’s not olive fly?
I’m thankful to have come upon your site. You have answered a great many of my questions. The olives I purchased only have the tiny dots you mentioned, anything worse I didn’t use. However I’ve been cutting into any suspicious looking olives and found that many have a dark line through the flesh from the dot to the pit and an area along the pit that looks dark and mealy. This is the 4th day of the water soak of the brine cure. Can you help? This is my first time and I don’t know if I should continue or throw them away? Thank you for any help…jewel
Well, I tried your olive technics last year with a shipment of Black Olives, ordered my green olives this year to experiment with. I do have one question, you give 2 technics for the curing the green olive part. In the 1st you water bathe them daily for about a month, in the 2nd you mention brining the smaller olives. Is that from the getgo or after the month of water bath? I really enjoyed the results from the black olive recipes, an fact, have had to hoard the last of them because everyone wants them 🙂 Thank you!
It’s from the get-go. You choose which method you want to go with. Good luck this year!
Thanks for the quick response! I ate one last night and I didn’t die so I guess they are okay. 🙂 Just not that pretty. I’ll probably end up pulling out the worst of them.
Thank you so much for this recipe! I have 4 olive trees at my house and have been trying to figure out what to do with the olives. I have a question though. How bad are spots? My olives did not appear to be affected by the olive fly, but once I started the water soaking most turned spotted. Like little darkish brown spots over most of the olive. The spots haven’t gone away now that the olives are in the brine. They smell good and I have no scum so I am hoping they are still okay. Thanks!
Depending on what the cause of the spots is, you should be OK. I normally get that from olive fly, but I’ve seen “normal” discoloration, too.
Hi Hank,
Here’s one for you- I ordered some olives online, which were promptly delivered. They are Castelvetranos, and taste musty. Is this normal? The company says it’s just the brine, and to soak them in water for a few days. I still taste mustiness, though. Have you ever experienced this with your olives?
No, but then I pick my olives fresh and cure them. Could be a storage thing?
Hi, update… left my olives for over a month in the brine as I didn’t want to jar them up. (the last batch was perferct so I thought I would just let them sit) I went to get more to prepare and they are way too soft now. What did I do wrong? How do you stop the process of them doing that? Looks like I will have to start over as the texture is pretty weird. 🙁 Thanks!
I think the temperature got too hot. The olives always soften over time, but it typically takes months and months for them to get unpleasantly so. I’ve had good ones keep for a year or more. BUT, I’ve also noticed that when the temperatures get much above 75 degrees the olives soften very quickly.
This is great! My chef brought in a case of raw olives and told us to go nuts! This will be a great starting point since none of us have ever cured olives. Thanks Hank!
Martha>I brined my Barouni olives with salt brine in November last year and opened a jar in April and they were bitter and I let the rest continue to brine. I opened a jar just now in September and they are still bitter.
Hey Martha – you wrote here that you are brining and capping the jars. I dont think you should cap the jars. Capping puts a halt to the fermentation process as the fermentation gases need to excape. You also give me the impression you are not changing the brine all this time.
Hello Hank –
Thanks much for the fresh water cure instructions. I made two different final brines based on your suggestions, and thought I’d pass along the winner (by far):
Pete’s Brine #2 2013
1/4 cup kosher salt
4 cups cool water
1/2 cup white wine vinegar
2 bay leaves
1/2 teaspoon coriander powder
2 T dried lemon thyme
1 T dried ramps
I’d love to hear about others’ favorite brines!
-Pete
Hello hank
I picked about 2 gallons of olives from a neighbors tree about a week ago didn’t separate them just cleaned and slit them and have been change water everyday I am using regular tap water but today I notice a bubbly foam on top and after cleaning them some sunk down to the bottom of the jar I have been keep them at room temperature Don’t have a large frig to keep them in. should I start over even though it was a lot of work picking and slicing them one by one.
Thank you Hank for your quick response. I also noticed that one of the jars has mold:( on top I noticed it wasn’t air tight ,should I add the vinegar now to all of them, should I just remove the mold and add vinegar to this one. What do I do now?
Thanks
Bert: You should be fine.
OMG! First time curing olives and I have done the 4 weeks of changing water every day and put olives in salt brine it’s been 3 week and I realized I didn’t add the vinegar can I still salvage all my olives or do I have to toss them out and start over with a new batch.
Any advise is greatly appreciated.
I’ve been curing olives for ten years. I’ve had many great batches, and many “also rans.”
I agree that ten days is NOT enough time. It takes three weeks to a month.
Hope you had a good year!
YAY My olives are starting to taste like “OLIVES”. I didn’t read the article all the way through for the addition of spices, so 50% of my olives brined for 1 month in just salt and champagne vinegar…the other I used salt, a mixture of regular champagne vinegar and orange champagne vinegar from O brand, clementine peels and bay leaves. I was having a little fruit fly party it seems on the one with the orange peels so took out them for the next “sitting” However, the orange batch one tasted almost done…just a teeeeny bit of bitterness in the bigger ones. The regular salt/vinegar batch was still bitter. I am going to see what happens next month but switching to white wine vinegar as champagne vinegar is expensive, so will do that on the last run. A month ago, I was really skeptical about having done just a room temperature water soak for 30 days (as I didn’t do the fridge) and now I am feeling really good about it!
Used your method last year and loved the outcome! They were great right of the jar after about 4 months. I changed the brine a few times until they lost most of the bitterness, they were great. I also used the olives in Jamie Oliver’s recipe for Preserved lemon and olive tagine, perfect olive for it. Just bought 13 lbs at Produce Junction today I almost missed them as this is the end of them here at the store. I’m trying the slicing method this year as well, they are in my giant pickle jars in their water bath. THanks for the great advice it was so helpful I came back again this year to get your advice again.
Brining olives for the very first time and we were hoping to give as Christmas gifts- even if the recipient has to hold on to the jar a couple of months before opening. Is this reasonable? I’ve done a bit of research and it looks like after the first month (changing water daily) I can put in oil or water and add the herbs, etc, and that’s where they sit it after that? Sorry to be a bit confused- there appear to be a LOT of methods online! I already know which herb combo I want to go with, but would like to do as much as possible to insure they’re tasty!
thanks much
After treating my olives in clear water I now put them in brine in a dark cool place. Now I noticed that most of them are wrinkled. Can you tell me the reason why please? Many thanks.
I enjoyed reading your article. We’ve been curing our own olives for at least ten years. Sometimes they are the greatest things ever, other times they are ‘ho hum’ (I need to settle on a recipe… oh I probably should write it down too).
A few weeks ago we picked a couple of gallons worth, and today I thought I’d go start another batch. The olive fly problem is horrible this year. I gave up trying to pick after about 40 mins and only got about quart’s worth.
I basically do a hybrid of the various methods. I soak them in salt water, and change the water every couple of days. I’ve never tried the ‘water only’ method.
OK, so have been bathing in water at room temp for a month now. I read it was okay as my studio is super cool on another site and the way the Greeks did it as refridgeration wasn’t around. Anyway, I know you do yours in the fridge but I just don’t have space for it. 30 days, submerged, washed daily. After 15 days they were still really bitter so I just did it for 30…today is the 30 day mark.
Question: I took a bite and it still has a slight bitterness. However, underlying that there is a bit of a foul taste that I can’t tell if it okay or not. I forgot to wash them three times during the month. I am now doing it twice a day to see if the foul taste goes away. HOW do you know if your olives are “bad” I am concerned I let them bathe too long. The color is a little darker than olives you see at the store. There is only a few that have this little white coating on them in the crevices…have you seen this? Also, none of them are constistent in color, they are darker green and lighter green (not neon like they started)
So, question is are they still okay with my description of taste and visuals? and if there is still a bitter taste can I start brining? Lastly, what is the worst case, they taste like crap or I die a horrible death from bacteria?
I am going to start brining now but will check in to see if I should even waste my time…
Thanks! G
Hank, in your recipe for brine curing, I don’t see any instruction to make a slice into the olive with a knife, before starting the fermentation. Is that the right way? Can you brine cure without slicing them (or smashing them)? Thanks.
We only had the “Colossal” olives on our ranch this year. Our father, (who passed away years ago), would never cure those. His were the best ever and he always used the lye/then rock salt method. So, we tried to cure them anyway. Just a few hours into the process the skins began to separate from the olives. Dad always said that they turned mushy and that’s why he didn’t bother with Colossals.
Our green olives were always ready to eat in a month, and the neighbors came from all over with their containers around the first of November to Dad’s for their beloved green olives.
We’re hoping someone has a recipe out there where you can cure a Colossal Olive that will bring the neighbors around.
Happy Holidays…..
I couldn’t tell from the article – at the end of the water cure, you go into brine. Is that the same brine that the olives reside in for the next few months, or does it get changed at some point? Thanks!
I just got some olives from a lone tree on Lake Yosemite in Merced, so here I go! 412 olives, to be exact, as I just sliced them individually…
Martha, the same thing happened to me. I used Barounis. It has taken a year. I finally caved in this summer and sliced each olive w/ a knife, and then I changed the brine a couple times. Just jarred them up in a fresh batch of brine and put in the fridge, in late September. My advice is make sure you slice them w/a knife and change the brine every month or so as Hank suggests. I just received another 20# box in the mail and I am going to follow his instructions, religiously this time, and see what happens. Anna
Gina: I always ferment at room temp, especially when my room is in the same degree range as yours. Have at it!
Martha: only thing I can think of is that you picked the olives too early, or they are just super bitter olives.
Thanks for the article.
Do you need to keep it in refrigeration during the brining process? My Chicago studio space ranges in temps betweek 60-75 in the winter so wondering if I have to keep it in the fridge…a month seems manageable for the first part but as it takes up so much room, wondering if we can ferment at room temp?
I brined my Barouni olives with salt brine in November last year and opened a jar in April and they were bitter and I let the rest continue to brine. I opened a jar just now in September and they are still bitter. Is there anything I can do? Can I drain the jars and rinse and perhaps re-brine with a saltier mix? or are they a total loss and I have to start over with fresh raw olives again? Not sure what contributed to the bitterness.
Patti: They’ll be fine. Happens to me, too.
I just started a batch of green olives and I sliced them and have been soaking them for about a week. The spots where I sliced them are turning brown and they also have brown spots on them. What is that from and should I continue to soak them or are they no good. The last time I did olives I used the dark ones and they were fantastic. Thank for your help.
Thanks for the instructions on brining. Do I really have to wait until Spring to enjoy them? A few years ago I salt-cured them for about a month; a very earthy layer of flavor around a lot of pit. Olive fruit flies have been a big problem. I have tried Torula yeast tablet lures, and had 36% of my harvest infested. Any suggestions for organic methods.that might improve the yield? I suppose I could just yield to Mother Nature…
Cory: Go Badgers!!! Don’t pit them. Pit after brining. 😉
hank it appears you’re the az-ca-wi connection. I went to Marquette and live in az now. always good to hear of a fellow cheeselander escaping the cold.you didn’t really answer the “should I pit them before brining or after question”. I gotta know since it’s pickin’ time here. thanx
You can buy raw olives from Chaffin Family Farms in Oroville, CA. They are a family farm with beautiful old olive groves, and I believe they ship to anywhere in the continental US.
Thanks Hank. I’ll let you know how it goes.
Neil: I’d leave them in the brine until you want to eat some in the next few weeks. When you are ready to eat some, move to the smaller containers.
Hi there, i’m about to cure my first olives and was wondering about storing them once brined. do you recommend separating them into smaller containers and covering with oil or leaving them in the brine?
Go Badgers! I retired to Arizona and want to make olives like my Italian friends do back in WI. I just ordered 10 pounds of olives from Temecula, CA and they will arrive in a few weeks so I want to make sure I process them right away. The way I was taught was to crack open the olives and remove the pit, then soak them for around 3 weeks, changing the water daily. Then drain them and place them in quart canning jars with clean water and several teaspoons of kosher salt. Several weeks later they were ready to eat. We drained them and then sprinkled them with 1t. garlic powder, 1t. oregano, 1/4t. red pepper flakes, and enough salad oil to coat them. This gave them a nice Italian taste. Should I continue to remove the pits or leave them in? Do the pits affect the flavor? Can the olives be shrink wrapped after brining and stored out of the refrigerator? Thanks!!
Cathy: yes, it is possible. Our season around Sacramento is not until October, so while it seems a little early, I’d give it a go.
I also live in AZ and our tree`s olives are just now (Mid August)turning from green to dark purple. Am I too late or is it time?
Thanks Hank! I am so excited to see what they will turn out like in comparison to the batches I have tried in the past
Kristin: Yep, they brown a bit. Ultimately they will be, um, olive drab. 😉
Hi! I have cured green olives using lye in previous years and wanted to try the water curing method. I live in AZ desert area so olives ripen a little earlier than for you I think. I picked my green olives yesterday morning ~3 gallons worth and spent a couple hours slicing the olive with my paring knife and immediately dropping them into a “coolish” water bath. When I went to change my water today, I see that the olives are all turning brown around the incision. Any guidance for me on this? All olives have stayed fully submerged in water since they were pierced yesterday. When I used the lye curing method all olives stayed a beautiful green so I am a little concerned that I may have some contamination or something. If the browning is normal, that is OK, I was just not really prepared for that and was curious if you have the same results with the area around your piercings. Thanks! Great instructions for this process!
Greg: My olives always sink, so that’s no biggie.
I have a batch of green brine cured olives that have taken about 6 weeks so far, two weeks longer than the black batch. From experience green ones take longer so that’s ok, but these also have all sunk to the bottom of the jar. All my other batches have floated. Is there any explanation you can come up with. They don’t seem off, but I am curious/cautious.
(Up until yesterday about a third we’re floating but I pricked the whole batch with a table fork and now they have all sunk)
My brine-cured black olives are nearly ready after 4 weeks in brine, changed once at two weeks.
I tried this method a couple of years ago after picking a couple of buckets from wild olives in Hunter Valley, Australia. The olives turned out BEAUTIFULLY! Thought I had lost this page but rediscovered it.
I finished off with the brine mix + some malted vinegar. Olives are still good after three years.
Hi Hank,
Just discovered your Blog.
I planted about 20 olive trees down the driveway at my property at Dawesley, South Aust. about 5 years ago. Can’t remember whether they were oil or eating variety or both. Just let them go, with an occasional prune, very little watering. Just got back from overseas and noticed that all the trees are full of fruit for the first time. Tasted one and extremely bitter.
Any suggestions??
You reckon? That is GREAT – thank you for your prompt reply!
Brenda: Leave the olives on the tree. They will be fine.
My large black olives are ready to pick now and I’m going on holidays for two weeks. SO disappointing. If I picked them now, would they be ok to wait in the fridge, unbrined, untouched, until I get back? I brined olives last year and ended up having to get them babysat while I holidayed (slightly embarrassing to do that again). Any advice regarding the shelf life of raw / fresh olives? Much appreciated!
Brenda in Perth, Western Australia
I’m an avid mushroom hunter and forager (member of http://comafungi.org), and I love your stuff.
I live in the NYC suburbs. My local produce market carries fresh olives for a short time each year, but I’ve never bough them because I didn’t know what to do with them. Next time I see them I’m going to try the brine method – I even have an almost-empty huge jar of marinated artichoke hearts that I’ll keep for this project once I finish the contents.
In case any one else reads through comments and wonders about what I asked March 7, I pulled up the UC Davis info again and these questions are largely answered there.
I’ve got some olives that have been brine curing since fall using your instructions(changing salt brine every 1-2 months).
I’m finally getting ready to flavor them.
When you flavor them, I assume you continue to change the brine every 1-2 months until they are to your liking? and if so do you add fresh seasoning each time you change the brine?
And how do you store the brine cured ones? Once the flavor is how you like it, can you put them in a tightly closed mason jar in the pantry? Or do they need refrigeration as the water cured ones do? (I’m also wondering if I can mail them in a tightly sealed jar to out of town family/friends – or if once I tighten the jar – do I really need to refrigerate straight away?)
Great Post your so lucky to have them FREE and local.
Have you tried a cherry pitter? I find it works great on the brined olives i buy to remove the stones.
Why remove the stones, because i add the olives to a mix of olive oil, garlic, chilli and spices for a few weeks before serving. It takes the edge off the brine.
great site
Dhasa Bishop: Yep. They will be ready to eat.
Living in Colorado, we don’t have the luxury of picking olives. This year we ordered from Chaffin Family Orchards for fresh green olives, they also offer black olives for salt curing. They shipped in great shape, I highly recommend them if you need to order olives.
One Question about the water curing method. After water curing for a month, then adding brine, when are they ready to eat?
Thanks for posting the recipes.
Junelle: Could be any number of things, ranging from how old the olives were when cured to how long they were in the lye solution.
I bought some home cured olives cured using Lye and they are soft. What was the problem.
Fiona: Happens to me all the time. Change the brine.
Janet: You should be fine. It might take a while for the olives to de-bitter, but give it time and you will be OK.
Please help I left the olives in the refrigerator for 6 weeks. I also forgot to change the water every day, but did change it a lot. Then I rinsed them after and just put in the salt,water, vinegar, garlic, coriander water. Is it ok that I rinsed them or will I need a starter? Thank you so much!!!
Hi. I have some green olives harvested in Italy that I have been soaking in water, but not regularly rinsing and changing. They have been weighted down with a bit of cheesecloth which is now looking rather disgusting around the edges. I am worried about warnings of botulism. The olives themselves look fine so is this normal and are they likely to be alright?
Rebecca: Yes, I put them in the fridge. They can keep in the fridge for several months. I don’t recommend the fork method, as it bruises the meat around the holes and does not open up the olive enough to the fresh water.
Hi Hank- for the water-cure method, once you start the brine, do you put them in the fridge? How many months would you say they should sit in the brine? Also, instead of cutting each olive at first, I poked a fork in each one. They have been changing color rapidly, starting where the pokes were and moving out. They don’t look all that pretty, but maybe they eventually turn a dark/purple brown all over? Is that how they are supposed to look?
thanks so much for this info!
I put about 10lbs Servillano olives, bright green and all larger/medium, into Lye in a 2 gal ginger jar at 6 tbl spoons and a gallon of cold water. Tested them after 18 hours, and they were cured to the pit, but not too soft. I leeched out the Lye by dumping, rinsing, and re-soaking in cold water every morning for 4 more days. On the fifth day, the Lye seemed to be gone, and the leech water was clear for 24 hours. The olives tasted very bland., but they were still firm enough and were a pretty/even green color, somewhat darker than when raw. This turned out to be much easier than I anticipated.
This morning, I mixed 1 cup of pickling salt and 2 cups white vinegar in one gallon cold water, and returned the whole batch to the ginger jar. I put it on a cool dark shelf in my pantry and will take another look-taste in a week.
Wish me luck!
Watch it on the freash Rosemary, my olives taste like Christmas.
Mark: Until they taste good. Could be a couple days, could be a month. It depends on how ripe the olives were, how large they are, what they’re stored in, etc.
Hi, We are in the middle of attempting the water cure for a month. The directions say to start brining when the month is up. How long do we brine before the olives should be edible?
Hank: Just read your post from 11/30/09 where you answered my question above and recommend not slicing the olives for brine curing. Many thanks. 🙂
Hank: Thank you for the detailed info on curing olives. Quick question: do you make a small cut in the olives when you brine cure them they way you do for water curing them?
While I am at it, I have another question…I have cured 13# of olives. They are so yummy already, I now am ready for the final brining. Your article says now is the time to have fun with the spices…think Mediterranean…can you give me a rough guide of how much to use…for example whole garlic cloves? A cup? two? For 13 pounds of olives….how many peppercorns, a 1/4 cup? Half cup? Bay leaves? 25, 30?, 50? I plan to put a one foot long branch of rosemary, garlic, peppercorns, chili flakes, bay leaves in the brine….any suggestions? I have two gallons of brine for my beautiful olives…
Hey there!
I live in Jerusalem, Israel and have an olive tree in my yard. The olives are nice and big (an inch or so) and are green… then turn black (with purple juice) towards the end of the season and then fall off the tree by the hundreds. This year, I’d like to harvest them. When do you recommend I pick them? Also, these olives, if I pick them when still green, should I use the water-cure method above? And if so, when moving them to brine after the month of water-curing in the fridge, should I put them in the jars I plan to give them away in? Is this the end stage, or do I need to wait with them in brine for some amount of time before eating?
Thanks so much,
Naomi
Hi, I LOVE your blog and your suggestions and my lye-cured olives!! My question is how to store them after the second brining? In olive oil? I would like to avoid this as I love the freshness of the olives without the oil…Do I hot-water bath can them in glass jars? Can I store them in their brine in a crock in the basement? Do they need to be refrigerated? Thank you, Rhonda
Dennis: It’s not an exact science, but a quart of brine will be enough for 1-3 pounds of olives.
ANYBODY KNOW THE QUANTITY OF OLIVES (WEIGHT) AND THE DOSE OF WATER AND SALT
4CUPS OF WATER TO HOW MANY OLIVES????1KILO-2KILOS??
THANK YOU DENNIS
Megan: I keep the water-cured ones in the fridge, but I don’t see why they would not be good in a cool closet. I would split the batch and do a test.
Hank,
After the first month of changing the water daily, do the olives in the brine have to be kept in the fridge, or will a cool, dark closet do the trick?
Thanks! Just sliced, submerged, and refrigerated 3 gallons last night!
Megan
I have been watching them since they were small little buds in March, a majority are larger than a quarter. Not a lot are purple but more seem to be turning every day. There are ones with the holes on them that are rotted and within the last 2 weeks most have shrunk up like little raisins. But there are still a lot of very nice looking ones are purple already and blemish free. I work on the Naval base in Lemoore and I think our hot climate and frequent watering speeds up the olives out here.
Thanks for all the help, there is not as much on the internet about the subject of olive curing as I thought there would be.
Dan
Daniel: I bet if you look at the ones turning purple they will have olive fly holes. Our olives are just now getting to their full green stage. The early purpling is usually a sign of disease in the olive.
When it actually *is* time for the olives to be green-purple, I always brine them. If you see them in the market, this kind of olive is a pale yellow-green when its cured.
Hank, I have a question about olives I was hoping you would be kind enought to answer. I have been waiting for the fruit on the trees outside my work to grow largeenough to pick, now some are turning purple, will water curing work on the green/purple ones or should I brine them instead?
Dan
The Impracticalfishermen
I purchase fresh from greatolives.com (PENNA) in N Cal every year. Available now, they go fast. Their website has tips for curing. I do brine for a month and then can them with various herbs/spices.
I’m married to an old time Italian who grew up curing olives. We just cleaned a friends olive tree this morning and are curing them today. Green. And black. Once he puts them in the brine they stay that way til we open them. Some are 3 years old and are fine. We rinse them ..through away the scum. If they are to salty we rinse again. And again. To taste The black olives we dry on racks and freeze. When company comes we thaw, add olive olive. Fresh basil. Serve with a baguette. yummmmm
Ed: Only thing I can think of is that you picked the olives too early last year. They should have been ready by May. The olives will always be a little more bitter and hard than store-bought, but that’s part of this cure. As for the scum, it happens. Just pick it off.
I have been trying your Brine-curing. I started in October of 2011. It’s now August of 20012 and they are still bitter and hard. I have been changing the brine every month. I keep them in a cool dark place. During this past month I got this horrible looking scum on top of the jar. Blue with white and black streaks, horrible looking stuff. What am I doing wrong.
ED
Hank,
Thanks for saving me from that mistake. 😀
Daniel: No, that will not work. They will oxidize too much and look nasty.
Thanks for the post, I have to try this. I just moved to California from Illinois and have 4 olive trees outside my office. I was wondering if you think pitting the olives prior to the water bath would work?
Dan
Hank,
This is a bit of an embarrassed question: how long between changes on brine cured olives can one go? My wife and I lost track of a gallon of olives back in a corner of our canning cupboard after the second change, probably a year ago? Toast? Salvageable? Invitation to botulism?
They still look OK but we haven’t tried them.
Thanks.
Hank, My water cured olives been soaking for 24 days and all have darkend ..My question is when you water cure olives are they acually ripening?..because i have no green ones left..yet i see ones on the web that are multiple shades including green.. maybee its just the batch i got but i kinda wanted some green and purple just for appearence …. was wondering if i brine cured some of my green olives would they not ripen (turn black)? then I could mix them with my water cured ones at the end
Steve: That’s normal.
Trevor: They will typically need to be brined about 2-3 weeks before they taste good. They will, however, be staring at you in the fridge for a year — unless you eat them all first…
have done the “plain” water cure for 1 month and now ready to brine.
how long until the are ready to eat? i am tired of these things staring at me every time i open the fridge…..
Steve, I put a cup of salt in my olives each day when I change the water out. The salt keeps bateria from growing. That might be the problem.
Thanks for this good information! I just got done curing my olives. Its been a month since I started them. I am canning them tonight. I ordered them from California!
Anybody have experience with olive fly traps?
I live by an orchard that is not maintained and is infested. I usually get 50% yield from the trees.
There seems to be many different types of traps out there. Which are the most effective/least expensive?
Thanks!
HELP, My batch of water cured olives have been soaking for 10 days now and the slit I cut in them are turning brown!! Is this normal? Is anyone else having this experience..
Ken F: Nope, I get the dark spots all the time. It just happens. If they are too bad, I toss the olive.
Double G: I pick olives in late September through October. By now (November) they are turning black. Incidentally, I also do a lye cure on olives. But that is another post…
I learned from my Grandpa from Yugoslavia. Lye the olives from 12 to 18 hours depending on size. When putting the lye in he always put 2 big handfuls of ice in the water to keep the heat down which helps keep the green color on the olives. Rinse and stir daily and lightly salt the water each day to complete the curing. I would start trying them about a week after the lye. Keep rinsing and tasting until good to your liking. Less “lye time” makes firmer skin on the olives. I hate mushy olives, i like a slight snap when you bite into them. I use 3/4 cup of lye to one 5 gal bucket. I salt between rinse and put a cup or so in each time. After 2 weeks of rinse and salting I add spice or herbs (GARLIC is best) and jar them up. The final salt brine is to taste and i add a little vinegar.
My best advise to all is to experiment to get the taste you like. Olives are a family legacy of love and the individual taste you create will make your olives unique to your family. I am proud to keep a family tradition going with a method that my family has always used. My great uncle said any kind of olives are good to use. I perfer Manzanillo as they have a good meat to pit ratio and work well with the lye curing method.
My question to all is – when do you pick the green olives? How can you tell the green olives are ready? I waited this year until I started to see some start to turn purple then picked all the green ones I wanted. Any advise on timing for picking?
Great site and great advise!
Thanks for this great post.
I’m trying this for the first time, I bought a couple pounds of green olives and have been soaking them in water for about a week now.
some of my olives are turning brown in spots, half the olive is brown, the other half still green. or large spots of brown.
is this an issue? they’re not soft. when the olive turns from the bright green to the darker olive green of your last picture, do they turn consistently across the olive or does it happen in spots?
Its called cracking the olive. This is usually done with a rock. You can’t hit it to hard or it will be a mess. This helps the water to get deep into the olive and if done correctly will give a better product in the end. If you cut them you would need to soak much longer than the 14 days it takes. You can always taste the olives and see if they need more curing. I do the small black olives and the calamatas and they work just find. Hitting them with wood is a little more difficult in getting it right. THe olives are best if they are not to ripe. They need to be on the green side still but not under ripe either. There is a difference in color, the unripe has the lime green or spring green color to it. Good luck with your curing.
Just like to tell you that I am living in Greece and just happen to be picking olives today. Every year I cure olives with sea water. And old Aunt of my husband taught me this. So if you are fortune enough to live close by the sea, you can use water from the sea and change it every day just like it says above. You will get a much better olive in the end. Sweet water isn’t as good as salty. I find the olives stay a lot better. Several years back, I had put my olives after curing in a 5 gallon crock. Then we started working on our home. So out into the sun it went. I left them their for three years and to my surprise they were still in great condition. I couldn’t believe my eyes . I didn’t even get that scum on top with this method. So if you don’t feel like putting them up in jars, you can leave them in a old heavy crock and they stay wonderful for years. Hope this helps someone.
Thanks for the great recipe & advice! I just ordered 20lbs for olives for $39.99 + free shipping. They are also organic! http://www.chaffinfamilyorchards.com/store/curingolives.php
I can’t wait to cure them and eat them!
Great blog, Hank. You HAVE to try lye-curing so you can talk about it for us all.
I am midway through first try at lye-cured olives. An older Italian friend of my sister’s gave us a jar every year. He passed suddenly, and I want to have those buttery olives again. Mmmmmm.
I was scared of the lye, but followed the directions, used chemical tolerant rubber gloves, and it wasn’t a big deal at all. To my surprise, lye is labeled “drain-cleaner” in hardware stores. Just be sure it’s pure lye.
After 5 to 8 days of leaching the lye in cold water (changed 2x or 3x a day) I will be ready to brine. UC Davis says you can only keep the olives for two months! It’s hard to believe people go to this much work and must eat all the olives that fast! I see you claim to keep yours up to a year. Think I can do that without refrigeration if kept in a cool place?
Though my olives are lye cured, adding a little white wine vinegar sounds tasty. Can lye-cured olives be seasoned?
two questions about process:
with the small olives, and i mean small, do they also need to be bruised, or cut before they go into water? do they even go into water for a month or is it straight into the brine?
and most importantly, i wonder about the larger olives i already have in water: is there any wriggle room about how many days they can sit in this soak, before being changed? what would you recommend, if i find they are still bitter, and i am leaving on holiday, for a week?
HELP and thanks 🙂
Hello!
Just wanted to thank you for the very detailed information on curing olives. I am just back from a trip to Italy and brought 2 kilos of fresh green olives… I am so excited to prepare them following your method and hope they will taste as good as they look!
just started looking into curing olives. Have gone thru a few websites and found yours the most informative and detailed. Thank you for sharing your info
Hello. I was very glad to read your website as I was beginning to wonder if my olives will ever be ready to eat.I live in Sydney, Australia and back in our autumn I bought 5 kilos of large green olives. I have used the brine method because I have previously found that slitting the olives in our climate can have disasterous results. It is now spring and my neighbour who is originally from Sri Lanka, says she likes them, but my family does not. They are fairly firm and still somewhat bitter. I haven’t added any herbs or spices or vinegar yet and they are sitting in just water now. At least I now know it can take this long.
Julia: You will not find them until late September or early October. I have heard several people say you can order them from good Italian groceries. I’ve also heard that they can be had at places like Agata & Valentina. But they have a short season. Start asking around Sept. 15.
hi all, i know this is an old post but i am having no luck finding a place near NYC or online that sells raw, uncured olives. can anyone point me in the right direction?
thanks,
Julia
Hi Hank-
I picked a bunch of green olives last November and started them in the brine cure. The problem is that I had forgotten about them since and just found them. There was quite a bit of mold on top but the brine looked okay. The olives look a but darker than your picture but other than that, okay. I guess I am just asking what, if anything, I should do from here. Would it be safe to rinse and try them?
Thanks in advance.
Ed
I am thinking abiut planting one manzanillo olive tree in mid Alabama. Would one tree produce enough fruit to make it worth my while. Also would Manzanillo be a good choice?
Hello again. I started brine curing some very light green (like your fresh photo) olives in mid-November. The olives are now very very dark green / brownish. You mentioned that your brine cured green olives ended up looking like the lighter cured olives in the photos above. Mine look much more like the darkest. Is this a problem? Anything I should look for that will tell me these olives have gone bad? Thank you in advance for your help. -Denise
Great article! And very nice photographs! My favorite article of all I’ve found online….
I live in the wine country and every year, I saw the olives in front of my house and in the nearby wineries go to waste. So this year, I decided to make use of them. I picked them a bit too late, in January. They’ve been in brine and now taste salty but not bitter. So today I am going to put them in olive oil and herbs. Can’t wait to enjoy the fruits of my labor.
Thanks so much for this great post. I just ordered 25 lbs of organic olives and was searching for brining/preservation tips. I think I’m going to try 3 different methods from the UC Davis article. Cheers.
Hye I did 1 mo in plain water as directed and now a month in brine with seasoning etc and now they are all mushy. The skin is tough and the inside are falling apart. I started a new batch a month ago in just water, and those seem to be getting mushy also. I have two crocks that I used and there was mold on the top, which I scooped off.
What did I do wrong?
Dee: I rinse out the old jar and reuse it. No real cleaning needed, just a quick rinse.
When you change the brine do you put the olives in a clean jar? Or do you rinse out the old jar? Or do you just leave it in the same jar without doing anything?
Thanks so much!! This post has been so helpful 🙂
Sweet post! The Youtube videos confused me a little.
We have an Italian cash&carry, in Rochester NY, with 16lb cases of green Sevillano olives for $6. I guess it sounds a little late in the season. They are La Conda brand from California.
I bought two. Trying (slit) fresh water on one case and brine on the other. Lye scares me a little, though I would consider an ash cure. This is my first attempt(s) so I’ll keep it simple
I’ve never met an olive I didn’t want to eat. I remember sampling a tiny one off the tree in a Tucson courtyard and wishing I hadn’t.
Anyway, thanks for the post and years of follow-up.
Kevin
I have been soaking my 32 pounds of olives for 1 month , it is not Dec 15th. I m so excited this is my first time. we are italian and my stepfather did this years ago and I also wanted to do it so now I am at age 55! I love the process you choose. thank you so much! I hope they come out yummy. Merry Xams!
cherylanne
We moved 2 years ago to a property with Olive trees. Last year we did not have fruit, but this year it’s huge so we started to read, and found your blog. I have a few old brining pots so used them and I’m now into the salting stage on the green olives. Now you mentioned the December ripe olives, but I don’t see any recipe for them. I have a small handful that I need to do something with.
Denise: No and no. I don’t split my olives before brine curing and I don’t wash them, although some people do. I find I get a better flavor when the natural yeasts and beasties on the olive skin get a chance to play.
Once I am done curing I seal the jar and I do not keep changing the brine. If it gets nasty, of course, you can change it if you’d like. I tend to do this when my olives are more than a year old.
Flavia: Look up UC Davis Extension. They have a whole pamphlet on dealing with olive fly. You need to set out traps in February, I think.
Elaine: Don’t screw the top on, as you want gases released by the fermenting olives to get free. After about 6-8 months you can tighten it up.
I know this post was over a year ago… but I have a question that might sound silly. With the brining method you mentioned last… you said cover the top of the jar “loosely” I have a jar with a screw on top. Can I just screw on the top? Or should it be looser?
Hank thanks for your website – I have 20 pounds of olives I purchased water curing. On a different note, I live in So Cal and we have an olive tree in our front yard, it is 50-60 year old tree, we have been unable to harvest because of the olive fly! Do you know of any methods used to get rid of this pest!!
A couple more things…if you are still checking this post. I know I’m a little late in the game.
1) I see you cover the jar of brine-curing olives “loosely”. Do you actually seal the jar at some point (after seasoning?) or does it stay unsealed the entire time, until you’ve eaten all of the olives. I have a large glass jar w/ rubber seal. I began brine-curing tonight and just rested the glass lid atop the jar without the rubber seal.
2) Once you add spices/seasoning (after the New Year) to the brine-cured olives, do you discontinue changing the brine?
Thanks again!
Hi Hank,
Two quick questions.
1) Did you split your brine-cured olives before curing?
2) Did you wash your olives before brine-curing (it seems that’s a no, but want to confirm)?
Thanks!
Denise
Hank,
Thank you for this great article. I live in Arizona and picked a gallon jar of olives about the first week of October. I mixed up the salt brine and have the olives stored on a shelf in the closet. It has been right at a month now and I still haven’t any fermentation going on. At least that I can see. I feel I have the correct measurements of the ingredients. In your article it says to change the brine monthly. Does this sound normal to you? Thanks for your advice.
Thank you!
Tina: Not sure exactly why some olives get slimy, but I am definitely sure you should toss them; I think it’s some sort of fungal thing. I’ve only tossed those that are slimy, then changed the brine/water and kept the rest.
Hank – I have the same question as Jack. Why are some olives slimy? And do you throw the whole batch out when a few are slimy?
Thanks,
Tina
Hank…this is so weird! A few nights ago I had dreamed of curing green olives, an annual undertaking of my Italian family, with us kids smacking the olives with clean milk bottles so they split neatly and were ready for soaking. I dreamed and woke intermittently, each time going back to the dream again and again, and getting bits and pieces of the process but not enough to proceed, except for some of the ingredients like garlic and celery. I had gone to our local produce/gourmet store the day after my dreams and found the green olives!
Since my oldest brother’s passing a few weeks ago, I had no one to ask, but decided today to do a search on the internet and found you! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!! I now know that 3 days, which I had thought, was not enough to soak, and some other things I had forgotten. I appreciate the information so much… a true remembrance of things past.
Hey Jaime: I’ve stored olives in brine at room temperature for a year. BUT, your room temp is really, really hot. 85 degrees?! Put ’em in the fridge. Mine stay just under 70 degrees in a cool spot.
Hi there-
I was wondering how long I can STORE the olives at room temperature (80-85 F) after I’ve gotten them the flavor I want and while they are in a Salt Brine.
Does Anyone know?
Thanks. Jaime.
Alex: Yes, it’s OK to add spices and garlic to the brine — make sure you do it late in the process, though. If you are doing the all-brine cure, don’t add anything but salt until after New Year’s. If you are doing the water cure and want to spice up the brine you store the olives in, go ahead — it’ll be in the fridge, anyway.
Hi Hank,
Is it OK to add fresh garlic, along with the spices, during the brining process or will the garlic go bad?
Thanks, Hank.
Just in time, too. Half the olive trees around here already have different stages of ripe fruit while many others have large, green fruit. Now I have a chance to try both techniques on different stages of fruit – time to go harvest 🙂
John: Nope. Don’t break the olives in the brine cure. It just takes time for the bitterness to seep out. Salt will do the trick all by itself.
Tiny: I wouldn’t do it. Toilet water is technically drinkable, but the inside of most people’s toilets is coated with slime and mineral deposits. Plus, it would definitely stain the potty. Get a really big glass jar instead.
Could you maybe do the water soaking part by putting them in a plastic mesh bag ( (like for onions) and putting them in the toilet tank? I ‘ve heard of leeching acorns that way.. why not olives? Would it stain the potty?
Thanks for the inspiration Hank!
I live in SE Arizona, where olive trees are abundant – one of the desert dwellers that does well here. Most people here find them a nuisance, and so the fruiting branches get cut away and tossed. I, on the other hand, have always thought this was a horrible waste but could never find anyone who knew the process of making them edible.
I’m very interested in your brine technique. From time to time, I make my own cheeses, so the added time is not a concern – somehow, the wait makes the finished product that much more enjoyable. I was curious, however, if you also need to break, or slice, the olives before placing them in the brine, as you did for the water cure? It would seem to make sense that you would still want to leach the bitter properties from them in this manner, but then I don’t know if salt is somehow a conduit to this process on it’s own.
I look forward to your reply – and really, thanks – you don’t know how long I’ve been waiting for this. I should’ve “Googled” it a long time ago!
Olga: Yes, I changed the soak times for the water cure because I’d not had good luck with the shorter times everyone seems to recommend. These olives, with the new soak times, were WAY better.
Hello Hank,
Your blog was the first I have found with really useful information on olives, which is what I was searching for when I found it but I have learned so much from all you have to say.
My question is about olives, we have 8 trees that are about 12 years old, they are fabulous to look at and very good producers, all organic and no pests. Last year my mother and husband decided to cure some of them, with very mixed results…ok, they stink. I shudder to even look at them.
I lived for many years as a teen in Greece with my family and I was the one who had the job of smashing the olives with a brick to break them so my aunt could cure them. That and the harvesting was pretty much my only exposure to the process but having come from a culinary family I have good palate and knew from observing that they were making a few mistakes.
My mother had met an old Italian gentleman who lives down the street and he “taught” them and I deferred to him. I am sorry we did because the results were not what I think they should have been.
I noticed that you revised the time frames you used to cure your olives, do you feel that your revised time frames worked well this year?
Thanks so much for your great article and I hope they keep coming!
Thank you so much for this post! Back in August, I wanted to brine my own olives. I was looking around on the internet for resources on how to do it, and I was so overwhelmed because it just seemed like a random hodgepodge of information and nothing concise and complete. This has really made my day. I am so excited to be able to do this this year.
Boy howdy! I’ve been looking for this advice. Me and the hubby just planted an olive tree. We can’t wait to cure them (in a few years, of course). 🙂 Thanks for the as-always, excellent advice.
Hank, I live in Northern CA and travel to Italy fairly often on business. I was a guest at a home in Italy where I was fed some Olives before dinner that the family cured themselves. I do have a few olive trees at my home so this peeked my curiosity and asked for the Recipe. We enjoy the harvest event in October just like you describe, only I am on the ladder and my wife is below drinking the wine, I do get to watch Cal Football (Go Bears!) after, so all is good.
The recipe I was given was almost identical to what you have written with the exception of white wine vinegar, I’ll try that next year.
My first year curing was last year, some Olives developed a slimy coating with a bad taste, I threw the whole batch out because you never knew when you would get one. Have you had this experience before?
I am in my second year curing now with the same recipe and so far they are tasting great, 30 days left. My second question is, after curing, how do you store the olives? Do you use the same brine solution and after filling the jar with olives, do you use the same brine solution in the jar? I am almost to the point of removing from the brine and herb solution, what’s next? I didn’t think far enough ahead to ask them that, plus my Italian is not great. : )
Thanks a bunch, Hank. I suspected that 1:2 might be a bit much vinegar. Do you know what is a good Ph level to maintain in stored olives? Should I test Ph level? If so, what kind of device would you recommend?
Linda: That happens to mine, too. Change the brine and add some vinegar.
Bob: That is a LOT of vinegar! No botulism in that batch… I usually go with 1/2 to 1 cup of vinegar to a quart of briny water. Botulism needs a non-acid environment, and an anerobic one, so with that much vinegar and air circulating you will get mold (which I find to be normal) but no botulism — at least in my experience.
I am preparing home-cured olives (black & green) for the first time, curing them in brine, then replacing the brine with solution of 1:2 parts vinegar and water (adding garlic, chili, fennel or thyme). I am concerned about botulism, as the jars I am using are not air tight. Advice on this question would be greatly appreciated, as so far I have not found the question addressed anywhere on line.
Hi Hank
The olive brine is developing a white clumpy residue throughout the jar -concentrated at the top and bottom. Is this just fermentation or is it a bad residue?
Thanks
Hank, you are amazing. I just love the fact that you find things most people take for granted (olive trees) and make something delicious of of them. I am so going to try this! Any olive groves you know of in the Land Park area? I’m too late for green, but maybe black…
David: No, I don’t slice the brine cured olives. I like them whole. It probably would speed the curing process, but I like uncut olives for that preparation.
Do you slice the brine cured olives too at the start? Or only the water cure? I’ve seen brining recipes suggesting either way (though seems like the slice reduces the brining time a lot). Thanks!
Last year I tried my first effort of curing black olives. I washed them and placed them in an old stone crock. I simply covered them with layers of sea salt (no water). I found that kosher had little effect. I did not slice the olives. I left them just as I picked them from the tree. I stirred them every couple of weeks, and changed the salt once in three months. After three months I began to sample them every week until I got a flavor I liked. In total it took about four months, after which I dipped them in boiling water and left them to dry over night before placing them in jars of olive oil, vinegar, thyme, garlic and a slice of lemon. They stored nicely in the refrigerator and were absolutely delicious. I just picked a another batch today and have them in the sea salt ready for a their hibernation.
Ok, one more question. When doing the brine, should I put all the spices in a cheesecloth or just let them float around with the olives?
Thanks Hank-
things are going swimmingly! The brown area from the knife cut has morphed into green – will taste them every week and test PH also. Will also change brine monthly as you suggested. Get the feeling that there are many ways of doing this. Going to do a brine for some black olives as soon as I can get some.This is fun!
Jovi: Yes, perfectly normal.
Linda: I switched out the water time because they were still too bitter for me. Peter from the Kalofagas blog (he’s Greek), suggested a month, and as it is now officially a month, I can say my olives are no longer bitter — so Peter’s advice was sound.
Brining will pull out the rest of the bitterness over time. Keep them in brine and change it every month. Taste your olives and they should be good to go by Christmas.
Almost time for black olives! I go in December…
Hi Hank
I cured two batches -one using your recipe with kosher salt and one using Maurice Penna’s suggested recipe. I called him and he gave me salt quantities by weight-not volune and I made the recipe using pickling salt (heavier than Kosher salt). It’s been a week now and I tasted both batches – the olives seem a little bitter. Hank I noticed that you changed the water soaking time above from 2 weeks to one month-wondering if I should put them back in water for another 2 weeks or if the brining will pull out the bitterness if I change the brine as you suggest. I didn’t notice a difference in taste kosher vs pickling salt but there is a slight difference in the PH level after a week. I think that the PH will continue to change as the olives cure. I added fennel and bay leaf to the brine and will add dry garlic later.
I’m hoping to do a batch of black olives soon as well using the brine method.
I put my olives into the water cure 11 days ago and they’re half brown/olive green as well. I’m assuming this is normal and waiting the full 2 weeks to taste one. I agree with Linda though that they start “browning” by the slit first. Is it normal?
Linda: Sorry for the late reply, but the sort version is they should be fine. My water-cured olives always turn “olive” instead of that pretty green. Have your olives lost their bitterness yet?
Holly: You can do that brine cure on the black olives just fine. The different taste is probably fermentation — is it a tang? You can lye-cure black olives, too, but I haven’t done it yet.
Hi
We planted 7 olive trees, 3 are 3 year old and 4 are 1 year old. We tried salt water brining last year on about a pint and they never tasted right. We just picked about 3 times as many black little olives today. Anyone have suggestions for what to try this time?
Hi Hank -Linda again
So I cut a slit in my green olives and they’ve been soaking in water since Saturday. The slit has turned brown on all of the olives and there are brown spots developing on some of them. Can they still be cured in brine or are they spoiling?
The only reasons I can come up with for the browning are I cut the slit using a Kuhn Rikon knife (carbon steel blade) and I used tap water. I think I may put half of the batch in a brine now and continue the water leaching with the rest.
Any ideas?
I get my fresh olives shipped from Penna in Orland, CA – GreatOlives.com I’ve always done ripe (black) olives, but he sold only green olives this year – hence my search of your site looking for guidance. I do the water method, changing it every day. I was away from home for a week, so for that week I added salt (kosher, enough so a raw egg in shell floats), then switched back to daily water changes when I got back. Today, my olives are ready to cure. I’m going to try: vinegar, garlic, lemons, red bell pepper and oregano. Any other ideas???
Thank you for the wonderful and useful post!
It’s becoming my California tradition too.
I brine-cured some black olives last year, they did take forever, but they came out very tasty.
I just picked up a few pounds of green olives in the local park, and I am going to use your water method on them.
I hope for some black olives later on, but with these early storms that knock them to the ground they may never have a chance to ripen.
Linda: I use kosher salt so my measurements are the same as yours. It is free of any addititves, and by mentioning the kind of salt, my 1/4 cup of salt to the brine is the same as yours — if you’d used fine-grain salt you would have too much in your brine.
I use glass containers. Go to an Asian market and look for Korean kim chee jars.
Never heard of botulism with olives. I’ll look into it.
Hey Hank
I just bought a bag of green olives from an Italian deli here in Vancouver and will start brining shortly. What kind of container is best?Would a plastic bucket be safe and inert or should I try to find large glass jars. I have some old stoneware Chinese pickled vegetable pots in my garden I could also use but they would require a lot of cleaning inside..
This is exciting-have been talking about doing this for years. Some recipes call for pickling salt but you used Kosher-aside from texture what is the difference? Is there a risk of botulism if the curing is done incorrectly?
Thanks
You super smart Californians! I don’t think I can get green olives here in Toronto though I would love to experiment like you do.
Ohhhh, yum. I used to work for Graber Olive House and the pleasure of eating those buttery lye-cured olives whenever I wanted is one of the great memories of my life. There’s a house in my neighborhood with a fruiting tree; I should walk over there and see if it isn’t too late to harvest it.
I grew up with an olive tree in my front yard… I always wanted to make them edible, but no one knew how… That poor tree (which also had my tree house in it) has long been cut down (I actually cried that day) but I think I might like to go forage some around Carmichael towards December, I am trying to remember if anyone I know has a tree or two…
Terrific post, Hank!
I’ve got some olives in water, changing a couple of times a day – but they seem to be oxidizing. Anywhere there was a blemish (or along the cut-line from my knife), they’re turning brown. Is this normal? Should I toss them and start again?
Thanks for the guidance!
Jenny
Very cool – thanks for posting this. I have a friend with some olive trees and we wanted to try brining them.
Your directions are always so much more accessible than others! Thank you!
Hi Hank,
I get my olives from Chaffin Orchards in Oraville. He is on twitter @chaffinorchards. Sells his olives for $1 a pound. They taste great and are Beautiful. Mine are Brining now, i cant wait to eat them!
Jenn
Thayer: Three weeks, huh? Maybe 14 days will prove to be too short. I’ll update the site to reflect it as time goes by.
Barbara: I assume you are referring the the Wolverines, who were crushed by Iowa last weekend? 😉
Scott: I may try a lye cure next, but it’s kinda intimidating to me, too — too much and you end up with a nasty, flavorless Lindsay-type olive. Yech.
This is perfectly timed, Hank. This has been on my “to do” list for some time. I must admit that finding and using lye was a little intimidating. Although, I have seen this water curing before, I have read that the lye cure was the preferred method. But, seeing it done successfully, I will try it. Just saw boxes full of olives earlier today. Thanks again.
Hey! I went to Beloit (and went to middle school in Madison). Don’t miss Wisconisn though — too grey. And I wish I’d had this recipe when I was at Davis — all those olives going to waste made me a little crazy … no olives in Montana, especially not after the cold spell we’ve just had — single digits at night …
What a super post. I knew nothing about curing olives- I always learn so much here.
And, sorry about this, GO BLUE.
I am in the middle of the water soak with some Sevillanos that I got from http://greatolives.com/ It’s been 3 weeks already and they’re still pretty bitter…I’m thinking it will be close to a month by the time they’re ready for the brine.
If you want to try and identify, there’s a very cool (and pricey) World Catalogue of Olive Varieties–Shields (main) library at UCD has a copy. http://www.carterandcavero.com/store/books/world-catalogue-of-olive-varieties.html
PitbullLawyer: I may try to lye method next. I am reading more about it, and the trick is to use just enough lye to get to the pit, but no more — else it robs flavor the way Joao says.
Annie: Nope, never pressed oil. You need a press, which is expensive, and some way to filter. Maybe someday…
Tavydog: Nope, all California olives are edible. Public trees are variable, so choose the ones with big, clean (meaning no olive fly) olives.
Peter: 30 days, huh? I may give it a go and update the post if it seems more to my liking. Thanks for the tip.
Ahh, lucky California folks…picking some free olives. I’ve cured green olives and water was changed daily for about 30 days.
It’s a matter of personal taste…keep changing the water each until the bitterness is gone and then, brine to your liking.
Hank, enjoy!
Wonderful post. Can we get you over to our lands in Sclafani Bagni, Sicily to manage the curing production on our 5,000 acres?
Ciao,
We have tons of olives around here (Redding, CA) – am excited to try curing some this year. Are there any varieties typically found in public areas that are not edible?
Great post. I’ve been curing olives for a few years in New Zealand and usually get my crop from the streets and parks of Auckland. The brine cure is definitely my favorite but I wouldn’t recommend the lye cure. I’ve tried it with an ash cure and it leaves the olives with absolutely no flavor at all.
Lye curing is even more “stupid easy” than the water-cure, but with a minor element of danger. It results in a buttery “olive oil” tasting olive, as opposed to anything with a ferment-based tang. I’ve got a vat going now. Happy olive curing!
I now have a dreadful craving for olives – and I’m going to be on a train all of tomorrow, so I won’t be able to satisfy it until tomorrow evening!
By the way, have you ever pressed oil?
Nice post– sounds fun to try. Olive trees are an invasive plant here on our Island, and thus, kept within the confines of “town” at all costs. I hadn’t thought of looking to see if they are producing trees and what variety they might be. I wouldn’t know one from another either, though. I do however have a friend here who grew up on an olive ranch/farm?, so who knows, maybe she’ll know if we can use them. A good exercise in patience too!
Ah, I remember those olive trees…. loaded with olives year after year, staining the sidewalks underneath with a rich purple goop as all their olives went unharvested. I miss California and I’m so jealous that you can just walk out and harvest olives.
You piqued my curiosity and I tried very hard to find a company online that sells raw, uncured olives. I found only one, whose harvest ended a month early this year. If anyone else comes up with a source, PLEASE email me. I’d really love to try this.
There was a time when my husband and I were considering several acres that had an olive grove, which I believe were mission olive trees. Unfortunately, we never purchased the property but my interest in olives was certainly tickled.
Thank you for your post and for reminding me there’s an opportunity ’round every corner in my community to get me some olives and get some pickling done. Now if I could only find the time.
I am intrigued by this, and I must confess that until a few weeks ago when I went to visit my step-sister in Sonoma country, I didn’t even realize that olives grew in California!