For 18 years I've been annoyed by the messy olive tree we inherited at our house. I am soooo impressed with your explanation and thank you so much! I can't wait until they ripe this year and I am absolutely going to use your technique. Thank you so much!
Hi Mark, my family and i have been pickling olives for generations, the only method we use to get rid of the bitterness after you cut or smash the olives to slightly open is to soak them in just water for a 2-3 days, change the water everyday, that's it. And then pickled them as you wish, with any additives you like for flavouring. And they ready to eat in about 4 weeks.
In Lebanon (they grow LOTS of olives), we just hit the olives slightly with a big wooden mallet (it makes eating them easier later as the meat pulls away from the seed after brining and they tend to crack in half neatly if done properly - you can do a few at a time as well). We typically only use a single brine (sea salt, should be at least slightly saltier than sea water - egg will float in proper brine!) and leave them be for a few months (usually ready to eat by November but better after December). When they're ready, many people will then re-bottle them in smaller jars (they're typically made in huge 10-15 gallon jars), either dilute the brine by half, and add a few cups of good quality cold-pressed olive oil to top them off or just package in pure olive oil (usually eaten within 2-3 months this way). It's important either way to either dilute the brine or soak in water (in the case you'd like to package in olive oil) to bring down the saltiness. Awesome video thanks!
Last year I got 5 olives from my single tree (variety - I forgot), planted it against the fence. This year I picked 300 green olives for testing (most of the crop remains on the tree, and the nighttime temperature is getting down to 2C), and they're soaking in brine - tasted one after only 1 week and it was not really all that bitter.
I'm excited- I just bought my first home with just a courtyard front yard, but I'm growing a couple of olive trees in super large pots, here in the Moreton Bay region. Hope they grow in this climate! Can't wait for them to fruit, along with my lemon tree (also potted) which is going gangbusters! Your self- sufficiency vids are GOALS!
Ace video, very handy tips you explain it well,, exactly what I needed. We have three olive trees that just started fruiting in Victoria . Did not know about the dodgy commercial methods for curing, makes me even more motivated to do it ourselves
Hey mark I made my first olive batch last year around may 17, I was so excited I got my mum to show me how and like you I was amazed at how simple it was. I only just opened a jar this week! And they were delicious 😋 Just to let you know I had the olives in the jar and we keep them in water for 3 days changing the water every day ( it take out that bitterness) then on the fourth day rinse and fill with water top with 1table spoon of sea salt (sound like a lot but that’s what keeps them crunchy!) and that’s it leave them for 6 months or more too freakin easy and soooo crunchy and yummy 😋
AT 12:40 your succeeded in making my mouth watery. I have one olive tree I planted 3yrs. ago: Arbequina (from Sandy Oaks Olive Orchard in Texas) and had no clue in what to do with the olives. Organic is my way, so I found your video very easy and interesting. I did not know it took so long to get them to an edible point. I love olives. Great informative video: congrats!
Thanks for the info Mark. Handy to know about the St Helena olive trees. Mum used to give us olive leaf extract a bit, definitely an acquired flavour. Cheers mate.
+RobBobs Backyard Farming Thanks Rob, we have about 3 x more olives setting this season than last year so although still not huge out olive harvests are improving, which is pretty cool for the subtropics! There's an olive grower who sometimes sells their own produce at the Caboolture Sunday markets and their farm is just outside of Ipswich so it's good to see some local success coming from our local warmer region not known for olive growing. Cheers :)
+Self Sufficient Me I just googled & found Watercress Creek Olives up the road from us as well as another called Coolana Olives up the highway a bit. 👍 Would never of known unless you told me. Thanks Mark.
Definitely want to cute olives myself I live in mandurah, western Australia and everywhere I go I see olive trees. Definitely wanna give it a go. Thanks for having everything I appreciate in the garden mark!
That's smart planning your own olives to be pickles. Three times process to removed bitterness. That's another plants that take longer to removes. Egg plants I heard people using sea salt to removed bittereness. Blanched them in salt. Great video. Thanks for the info.
+yack f zay Thanks Yack, yes I also use a sprinkle of sea salt on my eggplant to draw out bitterness and help with the preserving. Although, there are more eggplant varieties that are less bitter now than there were a few decades ago so drawing out the bitterness isn't as necessary as it once was but drawing out the water before grilling and then preserving in oil is a really nice way to do eggplants. Cheers :)
I just picked 8 gallons worth from a local park(called Los Olivos) and a tree near my house. Tempe Arizona USA, tons of olivesl olive trees everywhere!
Hi Mate, I live in Redcliffe not far from you. your channel has been an awesome resource! I was wondering if you have had any success with your helena olives? how many years until first harvest?
I live in southern Portugal, Mediterranean climate and in my propriety I have 15 centenary olive trees that produce a lot. Be mindful that heavy pruning every 3 three years is mandatory if you want them to produce, at least that’s what I do. I staggered my pruning so I can harvest olives every year.
Mark I have a Canadian Olive tree LOL it is growing in my living-room, about 2 feet tall. It is actually a variety that they are growing on the west coast of Canada, British Columbia, what the rest of us call Lotusland. From what I've seen of Olive trees in southern Europe I think they must prune the top growth at least I've never seen trees as tall as yours. I worked on a farm south of Rome where I pruned olive trees which were massive and very old all I was allowed to do though was prune off all of the new growth that comes out on the trunk every spring. I don't think they cured their own olives but they pressed their own oil which was the best I've ever tasted.
+Dale Calder So Dale, do you think I should maybe knock the top off a few of my trees to perhaps stunt growing a little and encourage a more compact tree? Maybe it will help with fruiting also? Thanks :)
+Self Sufficient Me I really don't know much about them I was just the cheap labour and all I did was the side growth that comes out on the trunk of older trees. I just had a look and this website has a lot of very confusing information but I guess if you choose your method then it makes more sense. www.oliveoilsource.com/page/olive-tree-pruning The branches make a very impressive bonfire I think there must be a lot of olive oil in the leaves too touch a match to it and it goes up like you had put gas on it.
Mark a great motivational clip with informative details, A few things I didn't know about chemical preps. One point Canola oil is mostly GMO crop so I wouldn't use that to stand in the fridge, Once again thank you..
In September I was in Las Vegas. Cesar's Palace has a bunch of olive trees that were fruiting black and green olives. I attempted to eat one. Bad idea. Now I know why.
+Liberty Garden Hehe... Yes I've done the same and it isn't pretty (not the Las Vegas part - I wish - maybe one day) but I did taste one of my own olives straight off the tree and thankfully I was in a place where I could spit it right out! Cheers :)
I have 3 olive trees, 2 locations. This year my Mammoth Olive tree is loaded. Planted about 2005. Mammoth takes a while to settle down and fruit, and is quiet biannual. Also pruning messes up fruit g cycle. This is probably best year fruiting. About 3 years ago cut top half off tree, it's back up to where it was. There's probably 50 - 100 litres of olives coming on to harvest next couple of months. Still green , but on the turn. I prefer to cure ripe black/purple olives
+Silver Siren Yeah for the most part the olive trees grow great but they do get hit sometimes by olive lace bug which causes leaf drop - it's not too much of an issue though... Thanks :)
Sodium hydroxide is in many old traditional recipes around the world , when you use the pure substance at a low concentration it’s perfectly safe and certain things need it to be absorbed
I normally hit the olives or cut them. i prefer hitting the olives. Then i get clean water and i keep adding course sea salt till i raw egg floats in the water solution. I simply put the olives in the jar with garlic or chilly or dill. Then i pour the salt solution and in two weeks it's ready to eat!
I am making my first batch. Being Greek my mother has told me to cut three slits in our Jumbo olives and change the water daily for 10 days. Then I will make the brine with your egg method because Mum says that is the key to the right salt consistency. Then place the olives in jars fill them with the brine and do a top layer of olive oil, chillies, garlic, bay leaves. Leave them for 6 weeks. Then ready to enjoy.
+DonnaldaSmolens No worries at all and thank you for saying g'day! I'm resigned to the fact that my trees may never fruit as good as a cooler region; however, the lower chill olive varieties are still worth growing in my humble opinion... Cheers :)
Thanks for your video, great recipe. I have a though: let’s suppose that from the 1st brining to the last you use 5 liters of brine in total for x amount of olives, since the process uses osmosis we can use 5 liters of brine from the start and leave the olives for 10 weeks or so until the olives are right to eat. Make sense? Thanks
+Raf's Kitchen Garden Thanks Raf, yes I hope the olives starting to produce (finally) means that each year the yields will improve slightly but to be honest I'm not too sure and we'll have to see. My research tells me that olives can have bad seasons even in good growing areas and I suppose that's true for all gardening lol. Cheers :)
Can i please ask you what can I do with an olive tree which seems half dead and one or two branches is producing fruit and leaves? Do i chop off the branches which seem dead or are they dormant? thnak you for your time
Love the video. Thanks. Our Helena is just a baby so we are waiting patiently. Would love to have a look at your property some time. Brisbane is a great place for lots of fruit and veg growth. Ever thought about having a couple of bee hives ?
I bought a bomb shelter sized can of pitted olives at my grocery store (Vermont, USA) today & want to separate into several glass jars. I cannot find anything online on how to do this. Do you have any pointers?
Hey Mark; Do the olives ferment, like a karaut, or pickle? I live in Northern Washington State, and I will have to do some research to see if olives will grow here. I grew up in Sacramento, California, and there were olive trees all over the area, and they produced like rabbits. LOL Many trees grow in public parks, and even as a small child, I wondered why no one bothered to use them. It felt like such a waste to me.
+Scott M (Scotty2307) The olives (in my opinion) do lacto ferment similar to a pickled cucumber or sauerkraut but not as aggressively. Mine frothed up slightly over the first several days and changed in colour from bright green to olive drab just like cucumbers do during natural fermentation but the brine does have to be changed to keep drawing out the oleuropein so this cleans out the lactobacilli bacteria growth each time - that's the main difference. I've heard of California's olive industry it's supposed to produce most of the olives eaten in the USA so they must grow well there! Here in Australia down south in SA near Adelaide the olive tree has become feral (so I've read) due to animals and birds spreading the seed - I always get so jealous when I hear how easy they fruit in other climates compared to mine! Hahaha... anyway, table olives are expensive to produce (as a commercial crop) so if you can grow them at home and cure them yourself it's a considerable savings. Cheers Scott :)
Hi Mark.ive watched your video on how to make olives.ive tried to make them and as I took them out of the salt water I left them out I think too long out near the window in the sun light and they have changed from green to dark spots.is it still safe to eat them? I'm so disappointed 😪 I wish I could send you the photo I took. Please let me your apinion.
As they're curing, olives change colour from green to brown, although it is better not to put them in direct sunlight. Once they're cured, I put my home-grown olives in extra virgin olive oil to enhance the taste, and include some herbs like ginger, rosemary, crushed chili flakes, maybe some mint or garlic for a truly mediterranean flavour. Mmmm delicious!
How about a Olive growing and pruning/trimming how to...? Please... Love your channel and try to comment when interesting. hope this comment doesn't bring back bad memories LOL from near 3 years ago?
Getting fussy over sodium hydroxide “because it’s drain cleaner” is some next-level crankery. That’s like getting upset over vinegar in food because it’s used as a rust remover. 😂
You need to prune the trees every year (that way new growth goes to the fruit-don't let them grow tall, top them). 70g of salt to every kilo off sea salt After you wash them with clean water and change the water daily for 8 days,, leave them in the brine for 4-5 days and make sure they are completely submerged while they are in the brine..✌️
You did nothing wrong. Remember that the bitterness is extracted from the olive via osmosis, that is, the salt in the brine is extracting the bitterness by pulling out the liquid from the olive which is filled with oleuropein, the bitter compound. Since liquid is extracted from the olive while curing, it does go a bit limp. Are you sure you did not leave it in the brine too long? I would suggest that after the 4th week, you try one every week to check on where the bitterness stands. This is a matter of individual taste, some might like them a bit more bitter than others.
+Alec L It does help if the container is covered at least. At the moment I'm replicating this jar method in a beer brewing container due to the 8kgs of olives we picked this season and I have placed an air-lock on the larger container just to keep out any nasties but it's technically not sterile. Here's a post from our forum with a pic www.selfsufficientculture.com/threads/how-to-cure-homegrown-green-olives-naturally.675/page-2#post-8292
I wish I liked olives but I simply cant. I like black olives, the ones that aren't so good for you compared to the green ones lol Good video I can pass along as many folks do like them.
+Ozark Mountain Girl I think black olives are still pretty good for you though... I'm going to try and cure some black ones this season (hopefully I get enough) - I actually do like black olives also but I've never tried curing them yet. Thanks for watching! :)
Black olives are healthy as prepared by the Mediterranean peoples but I believe that the Ozark Mountain Girl is referring to those bland California black olives packed in a can which are definitely not healthful.
Love your vids, outlook and generosity, thanks. Hope you've learned about the history and nature of canola oil since making the vid. How Canola Oil Is Made Canola oil is highly processed and requires synthetic antioxidants to prevent it from going bad too quickly. Here’s how oil manufacturers make it: Step #1: Pre-extraction prepping: The seeds are ground and sieved to remove the husks and foreign matter. Step #2: Extraction with solvents: The most common extraction method uses a solvent called hexane. The seeds are added to a machine along with a solvent (either hexane or a combination of chloroform and methanol), and it goes through a process of boiling, rinsing, and extracting. This method removes most polyphenols (healthy plant compounds). One study comparing different types of extractions found that commercial solvent-extracted canola oil had virtually no polyphenols left.[*] Step #3: Semi-refining: The oil is degummed (removing lipids), neutralized, bleached, and winterized (removing waxes). Step #4: Deodorizing: Steam is applied to deodorize the oil, which creates trans fats.[*] Step #5: Adding antioxidants: Canola oil oxidizes easily. The monounsaturated fats make it more sensitive to light, oxygen, and heat than saturated oils. (source: perfectketo.com/canola-oil/)
+Lulu Barretta I have investigated making olive oil and unfortunately it's actually a LOT harder than I expected. The problem is a standard juicer or kitchen bench top oil machine will not do the job and currently the only machines that can are thousands of dollars... My assessment is it's not worth making olive oil on a small backyard level until someone invents a better way to extract it. Cheers :)
You don't want scheme water because the traditional brineing is partially a fermentation process, and the chemicals put in scheme water are there to kill yeasts and bacteria, and in high enough concentrations can prevent the brineing from being completely successful. In a pinch, you can use boiled-and-cooled water, because that gets rid of most of the additives - but bottled or distilled water is best. Found your video because I'm on a big fermentation kick at the moment (pickles, sauerkraut, cheese, beer, mead) and olives might be my next foray. Though... if it takes the trees 8 years to begin producing fruit.....maybe not.
I know what you're saying but I have experimented with distilled, boiled, spring, and fresh out of the tap and to be honest I haven't noticed much of a difference when it comes to fermenting. Perhaps the fermentation bacteria could take slightly longer to overcome the tap water and fluoride etc but in the end the lactobacilli takes over. Having said that, it's good practice to use filtered water I suppose. Cheers :)
2020 hope everyone is well and not catching this coronavirus or if you do I pray that you survive it. Deadly disease is killing many people worldwide. Sad stuff.
have an over grown olive tree in my garden left by previous owner ... too tall for me to harvest anything, gonna cut it down, fortunately there is new shoot coming out from the base of the tree
Like literally all chemicals (with zero exceptions including water and literally ll other forms of matter that you encounter) the danger from sodium hydroxide is in the concentration. Your stomach contains hydrochloric acid (the stuff used to dissolve concrete!) and your pancreas makes sodium bicarbonate (which in any aqueous environment like your digestive system forms a small amount of sodium hydroxide). If they used enough lye to cause you any health problems you would know before you swallowed them.
+Novisha Rivera Yes that's what I reckon too. To be fair, lye has been used for centuries to process olives but personally I like the natural salt way! Thank you :)
