Five Hour Olives If you have olives and cannot be bothered to process them in soaking solutions, then try this method. You can be eating the olives within five hours of picking them off the tree! The process is simple – pick black-ripe olives off the tree and check to make sure the flesh is purple. Wash the olives under the tap. Layer the olives on shallow trays then place in an oven at around 50ºC for about five hours. The process can be sped up by pricking them. Most black-ripe olives can be processed his way. If you want a range of sizes and flavours, try UC13A6, Kalamata and Pendolino. The flavours obtained have bouquets of sweetness – dried prunes and raisins with a slight bitterness. The olives can be eaten immediately. To get a salt taste, soak the olives in brine for one hour, drain off excess liquid, then oven dry. For a sweeter olive, instead of brine soak the olives in a sugar solution or why not try both. Once dried, the olives will keep without refrigeration or they can be put into extra virgin olive oil. If you want to make tapenade and you have no pickled olives, then use these. Source – Australian Olive Grower Sept. 2001.
The Longer Method:
Green Olives (& half ripe ones) of any variety
Day 1 -Wash in running water then cover with boiling water & leave 24 hours.
Day 2 -Pour off cold water & cover with boiling water & leave 24 hours
Day 3 -Repeat day 2
Day 4 -Pour off cold water. Place olives into clean jars, add mixture of brine & white or other vinegar in proportions of 3 to 1 by volume.
Fill jars well and add a layer of olive oil.
You can start eating after one week
Brine = 10% w/v salt in water that is 100 grams/litre of final solution. The brine mix I finished up with was 4.5 litre water, 1.3 litre white vinegar, 2 litre brown vinegar, 600g salt.