Curing Olives…

Well this is one of the busiest semesters I have ever had since I was in school. If I am not teaching I am prepping for the next set of classes. Through all this turmoil I need to find a release; this time of year I love to cook and bake.

In recent weeks I have made cookies, pizzeles, spaghetti sauce, fettuccine and Homemade bread(just to name a few) but I needed something that would be rewarding but not time consuming so… I decided to pick the olives from our tree out front and cure them.

As I began I soon noticed that I have two wasp nests in my tree so I carefully picked the olives I could reach and started processing them. I had about a gallon or so of smaller olives, but still good enough to cure.

My neighbor noticed what I was doing and felt sorry for me. The next day I found a 5 gallon bucket of nice big fresh olives seating on my porch waiting to be cured. (I didn’t think they knew they were sick :o)
Note: My neighbor works for an olive rancher.

Anyway, I spent the week curing my olives. It is fun, rewarding and it reminds me of my daddy… He taught me the important things like olive curing; I felt close to him this week.