We harvested olives today.
It was a simple thing – something people have done for centuries – but you won’t believe how excited we were plucking our first ever crop of olives from our tree.
I felt part somehow part of a timeless tradition – connected through time and space. Olives, the tree of life, symbolising peace and prosperity, have been part of human culture for more than 5000 years.
I cannot wait to experiment with processing them and to eventually taste them. Being the first time I have done this, I am currently researching simple home-style methods of processing a small batch.
I’m also keen to learn how to make olive leaf extract, and when we get more olives I’d like to try making olive oil.
Any good suggestions for how to simply process these for table ?
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| Our first ever olive harvest today (plus a few Tahitian limes) |
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| We just managed to reach the olives up high on top of our ladder. I must look into pruning olive trees. |
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| Our olive tree is at the top of our food forest zone in a relatively drier section of the garden. |
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| Looking forward to learning how to process these and taste our own home-grown olives. |
A book called Preserving the Italian Way by Pietro Demaio…I've several ways and found p111 easiest recipe to be very good..
How exciting.
A touch of the Mediterranean.
Bugger, my trees you have to bend down to, not climb up!
I am so enjoying it. A few years ago, I loved being amongst the olive groves in an ecovillage in Italy and seeing the old water powered village scale olive press they had restored to working order in Torri, near Ventimiglia.
Thank you very much
Hi Morag
I really enjoy reading your blog – I'm on the Sunshine Coast as well. Linda Woodrow over at Witches Kitchen Blog has posted today about what she does with her olives.
http://witcheskitchen.com.au/