Don Smith

Hi Cassie,

I was writing from my phone on the weekend so here is a more considered reply regarding climate. I have only been to California on holidays (I live in Australia) but I would suspect large parts of California would be perfect for olives (like Napa valley). Im not sure how they would go down south where its super dry, but I think they would still be pretty good down there. It’s the snow which kills the tree – they are very good at tolerating dry and hot spells.

I believe that a certain amount of ‘chilling’ is required for the tree to set fruit…which explains why they don’t do well in the tropics. I was also reading up on Lecinos on the weekend and noticed that they are purported to be the most cold tolerant variety of olive and can indeed survive regular snow falls – but they are unique in this regard. Where abouts in California are you?

P.S I just finished eating a punnet of those Lecinos I pictured above. I marinated them in oil, cracked pepper, garlic and fresh tabasco chillis – they are outstanding. They have a stronger olive flavour than the Kalamatas, although they are not quite as firm (but still have a good texture). Very happy with them.

Don

P.S the riper lecinos were quite soft after curing in the lye, however I let them air dry for two days before brining them for two days and they firmed up heaps. They have a great texture now.

Re best climate to grow them in. I think they are pretty forgiving. They can tolerate heat, cold and dry conditions. I dont think they would like a north.american winter (with months of snow) or the tropics but everything else would be a chance.

Rw oil coating. That happens in the optional marinating stage. After cure and salting. You mix oil with flavorings and store olives in this.

Lecinos. I am going to start brining these today. They were much riper than my Kalamatas were, and as a result have gone quite soft in the lye cure (lye is only reccomended for green olives). I will report back on how they taste in a few days.

Hi David,

I have attached some photos of the Kalamatas that I cured here, and i'll post again with some pics of another batch I am doing at the moment - with Lecinos. The Lecinos come from my mums house. I live in Canberra which has a supposed mediterannean climate - no snow but heavy frosts in winter and hot dry summers. Olives thrive here. We have four trees, but the Kalamata is easily the best. Its planted in a raised bed and has no competition from other trees. The other varieties (two manzanillo and one lecino) are in a different spot of the yard and arent grwing anywhere near as quickly.

Are you in France? Whats the climate like where you are?

Brendan

Hi All,

I thought I would share my story with Olives so far and seek some advice on where to go from here. I have a beautiful Kalamata tree at home that my wife has pruned into a feature for our backyard. We have had it for 5 or 6 years now and I believe it was 3 years old when we bought it. It crops well each year now and I have attempted for several years to cure olives from this tree, finally striking success this year.

My first attempts were to cure in water and brine following instructions from the internet. I tried this two or three times and they were all dismal failures. I found the time frames in the recipes were not remotely correct, and my olives at the end of a process lasting several months were still completely bitter and unpalatable.

Following this I tried with Lye, but I left them in too long. I think this was due to my previous experiences, I thought I would err on the side of longer rather than shorter. Ultimately the olives lost all their colour and became very soft. They didn’t have any bitterness though which was a win. So this year, I used lye again but tried the olives every day until I was happy they weren’t bitter. I used 2 teaspoons of food grade lye per liter of water and changed it each day. Typically the water was jet black after each soaking, an encouraging sign that something was happening. After 3 or 4 days of this the olives were cured. I then soaked them in water for 3 days, changing every day, and then salted them in a brine of 220grams salt in a liter of water. This brine had about a half cup of white vinegar in it too. After just 12 hours the olives were salty, acetic and incredibly yum. I think they are just about perfect – although my wife would like a touch less salt. Overall though, im very happy with these olives.

Now, I have access to large quantities of Kalamatas from a farm (uncured) and I would like to try a side by side comparison of several different cures. I would like to try a water cure, a brine cure and a dry cure (packed in salt). Im open to any recipes basically – so long as they are proven to work. So if you have a recipe that you know works, I would love to hear it. Im going to get these olives in the next couple of weeks and then I will start.

Don