Preserving Olives

For black olives, prick olives (You can do this by getting a cork and sticking pins in it so it looks like a porcupine, then use a stabbing motion to prick the olives. The idea is to get pin pricks in the skin of the black olives, so this method works well.)

For green olives, crack these olives with a mallet (you don’t want to smash them, so don’t hit too hard, but you do want to crack the skins a bit so the bitterness can leach out).

Ingredients

• 2 kg black olives, pricked 2 or 3 places with needle or pin
• filtered or bottled water
• 200 grams of salt
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 sprigs fennel
• 24 coriander seeds
• half an orange, rind orange, peeled into strips

Directions

1. Place olives in a large cask or jar and cover them with water. Allow them to soak for 10 days, changing the water every day.

2. We prefer to use filtered water to avoid the chlorine in our tap water, you can achieve the same result by letting your tap water stand for a day in sunlight, which will kill the chlorine. Of course, our Durand Water Filter removes a lot more than just the chlorine.

3. Place the drained olives in a saucepan with the 2 litres of water, ensuring they are covered. Add the remaining ingredients. Bring this brine solution to boil and boil for 15 minutes. Allow to cool.

4. Drain the olives, saving the brine, and put them in sterilized preserving jars. Cover the olives with the cold brine solution you have earlier saved, allowing a headspace of 2 -3 cm. Process using the hot water bath processor. Bring to boiling and then process for 45 minutes.