Just a few photos to show the harvest from the older of our two olive trees, variety unknown, from which we picked 1.4 kilos of ripe olives yesterday (the most we’ve ever had from this tree we planted six years ago), and (right) the Lucque olives which are still ripening:
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I washed the olives, checked that none of them were damaged and dried a bowlful for salting immediately, using the same method as I used last year. I’ve left the others to drain and store in jars as recommended in Max Lambert’s book, L’Olivier et la Préparation des Olives. They can then be treated as I’ve shown below whenever they’re needed.
After drying them I pricked each one with a fork, then put them in a bowl with herbs – rosemary and bay leaves – and mixed them well with sea salt.
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As the liquid comes out of them I’ll drain it off over the next few days and in a week or so the olives should be ready to put in oil and eat. Last year I left them rather too long and they dried out too much, so this year they’ll stay in the salt for only a week to 10 days.
