2006 Crop of Fresh Olives
2006 Crop Update, September 6th.. The olives bloomed almost one month later than normal due to weather. We now expect that will mean the first harvest shipping will start about September 20th. The late bloom and rain have resulted in a crop of less volume & smaller fruit size than last year. The Lucques crop will be very short, so if you want these unique olives for curing, place your order as soon as possible (after Sept. 20th.) There will also be none of the "Colossal" sized Sevillanos this year, just "Jumbo", "Extra Large" and "Large".
You can also check the post for last years crop and you might find answers similar to your own about the curing processes and the answers posted last year by myself, Maurice Penna.
On our website you can also check to see what the prices last year for the different varieties were.
So don't wait till the last minute to order. Prices will be slightly higher than last years'. Check in at our sales site at http://www.greatolives.com/FreshOlives.htm for the estimated price per box.
You can also check the post for last years crop and you might find answers similar to your own about the curing processes and the answers posted last year by myself, Maurice Penna.
On our website you can also check to see what the prices last year for the different varieties were.
posted by Maurice Penna | 6/19/2006 11:36:00 PM
7 Comments:
Why do you have to cure olives. I have never seen fresh olives or an olive tree. Is there something that curing does to the fruit. Sorry for the ignorance, just not many olive trees in New Orleans.
Chad
Steam Oven Recipes Cooking
I agree with Birzeit -- why would anyone ever want to cure olives in lye? It leaches the flavor right out of the olives. I didn't use a can of tomatoes for smashing green olives, but I did help my grandfather break the skin open with a hammer. I broke with tradition, though and decided a slice with a knife could accomplish the same purpose without destroying the shape of the olive. I then place them in a brine solution, changing it every week for about a month. Make sure to keep them from being exposed to air, and they cure beautifully. I store them in jars with a brine solution and cover the tops with olive oil. Add some oregano to each jar, garlic if you like, a hot pepper is also optional. I give them as Christmas presents and everyone loves them. They remember the traditional olives and I do the work for them, but that's fine.
Hi Maurice, I wrote to you last year about a problem I had with canning lye cured olives, they came out with a horrible smell and taste. I tried it twice with the same disastrous results. I had all but given up on canning olives. I invited a friend over for BBQ and his wife happens to be a food chemistry professor ( I didn’t know there was such a thing), when I told her about my bad experience with the olives, she said “you’re a liar aren’t you?”, I said excuse me? No I mean lye as in sodium hydroxide, yes I cured my olives with lye, the conversation went on and on with 25 letter chemistry words that I couldn’t pronounce let alone remember. It turns out that I did not rinse the olives well enough and they had traces of lye still in them when I canned them, which caused the bad results. She told me about an indicator I could use to tell when the olives are properly cured and when the lye has completely leached out of the olives. It is called PHENOLPHTHALEIN INDICATOR, it turns a bright pink in the presence of sodium hydroxide, you can tell exactly when the lye reaches the pit. My first batch took 12 hours to reach the pit and my second took 10 hours, I started checking after 9 hours. When I thought I had rinsed the olives properly I checked them with the indicator and found a slight trace of pink and rinsed the olives for 2 more days, I checked them again and had no indication, I brined them and canned them. Lo! And Behold! Ta DA! And all that stuff, the olives came out beautiful!
For all you “lye’rs” out there here are some of the sources I have found:
Phenolphthalein Indicator, www.vwr.com choose the united states page and in the search box insert 73150-038, it comes in a 65 ml dripper bottle, mixed and all ready to use for 13 bucks.
Food grade sodium hydroxide flakes: www.aaa-chemicals.com 5 Lbs. For 8 bucks, what a deal!
And finally a document from UC Davis on preserving debittered olives:
http://ucce.ucdavis.edu/files/filelibrary/2019/4249.pdf
I am so glad that I found your site and your blog!!!
My grandfather had olive trees and cured the best olives I have ever tasted. I was feeling nostalgic and started to wander around the internet to see if I could find someone who sold raw olives!!
Now...if it was only fall!!
curing my first batch with lye
does anyone have canning
instructions?
thanks
laurie
santa rosa
winklaur@sbcglobal.net
gaffer...
posted your comment in the 2007 blog, Maurice will answer soon
GreatOlives computer guy
i just ordered the green sevillano olive and would like to know how i cure them to produce a olive dolce, or sweet olive, with no sourness.
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