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Many years ago, when I was working in hell a bank, my colleague Jen (I wonder what's happened to Jen...) and I often went out to lunch together. During one such lunch hour, as the sandwich maker at Subway was making our order, piling up the green olives per Jen's request, she complained that she can't seem to lose weight, even when she eats healthy stuff.
rappy: Like those olives?
jen: Yes!
rappy: Jen, olives? Not exactly diet food.
jen: They aren't? But they're a vegetable!
rappy: Jen, they may be green, but can you see a connection between them and, say, OIL?
jen: OH.
This is the height of olive picking season in Israel, and last weekend, among the many fabulous things I did, I picked olives. There was an olive grove in a place called Kfar Kish, where you paid 30 NIS for a 5 liter container of self-picked olives. M and I picked a bucket-ful of olives, put them through a machine that cracks them, and then after picking out the bad ones, we filled the containers, covered them up with water, and were on our merry way back to the city. I've been washing the olives daily in water and today, following a trip to the market to buy tools and ingredients, I set to jarring them. I'm not holding out *TOO* much hope that they turn out great, but I guess I'll find out in about three weeks...
Recipe, kindly provided at olive grove, Kfar Kish, November 2006
YUM!!!!
Posted by: Sherry at November 17, 2006 08:33 AMThey should turn out OK, if you followed the simple rules, but:
Preferably PEEL the garlic (don't put your fingers in there, use a spoon, and put in fresh, peeled bits of garlic).
You might want to add a small hot pepper for extra taste.
Take out the lemon after the three weeks, as it goes bad after some time and will affect the taste of your olives.
And a general rule, don't get the olives out with your fingers, use a spoon.
Thanks! I think I'll leave them be for now. I didn't actually follow the instructions from the grove, but rather got detailed instructions from a co-worker (they involved diagrams), so I'll trust them to stay as is - I tasted his olives last year, plus he's given me a new jar where the garlic isn't peeled.
Why not use fingers? Does it impede the process somehow?
Posted by: rappy at November 18, 2006 03:52 PM