I used to have a prolific olive tree. Some years the olives were delicious and other years not so good. I could never work out what caused the difference. Maybe there were various factors; when the olives were picked, the weather, the temperature where the olives were stored, even how many olives were cured at a time.
This year, I have bought a small quantity of black olives. After washing the olives, I used a tool to stone them.
There are many different ways to cure olives. I am putting them in water for a few days, and then in a sealed jar with salt for 4 weeks. This is because changing the water every day was such a nuisance. If the jar is sealed I think maybe the olives will be ok.
It is a messy task, but with a small number of olives it is not such a deal if they don’t work out. The olives on the right are ones I discarded because they were spoiled in some way. If I were to include them they would ruin the whole batch. The jar on the far left is a proper stone ware curing jar. It has a lid with holes in it to keep the good olives under water. The plan is to soak them in water before soaking them in salt.
