Now that I have amassed a decent number of fruit bearing olive trees, I don’t have to beg, borrow or steal olives from friends and neighbors. This is my second attempt at brining olives.  The first, a couple of years ago, resulted in good yet bretty (yes, like in bretty wine) olives. I found a recipe in an a favorite book called “The Lost Arts” by Lynn Alley.  I followed her instructions to a T, soaking and changing the water daily for 10 days, then brining them for 3 months, with brine replacements every 10 days.  (Not a big time commitment – It takes about 5 minutes to change the water or brine.)  I picked the green olives in late November, when they were just starting to ripen, for the brine method.  I allowed the olives on one tree to ripen fully to the point where they were black, starting to shrivel and were almost edible.  Following Ms. Alley’s instructions, I performed the dry salt cure.  I can’t even begin to tell you how awesome these are!!  I packed them in twice their weight of kosher salt, wrapped them in a piece of linen and suspended them from a limb of the very tree from whence they came.  (I can’t imagine what went through people’s minds as they walked past this spectacle on the way to our front door.)  They were ready to go in a month and are now safely packed in olive oil in my pantry.

I spent my birthday this year making membrillo, quince marmalade and quince jelly with W Magazine writer, Kevin West.  Check out his canning and preserving blog, Saving the Season, soon to be a cookbook!