The Quilter Street Olives

Well, after a couple years of tending and loving the Quilter Street Olive Tree has borne enough fruit to harvest.

Last year we managed about 3-6 olives (we’re still arguing over the count), but this year… well “dozens” is the phrase I’d use 😉

So – I’ve decided to follow through and see if I can turn these into edible olives. I was going send them down to an olive farm in Devon that I found on the web, but sense prevailed: I didn’t have enough to moisten the gum on the envelope, let alone get a litre of oil.

So – to “Olive Austalia” and their preserving instructions . I’m going to try the “simple” approach to preserving these: soak in water for a couple of weeks (changing daily) and then moving to brine solutions.

Now, by the time we do the weekly taste test for 3 months I know that I’ll only have 12 left, even if they’re not spoiled, but this is a case of the journey being as important as the destination.

Further updates – maybe not quite on a weekly basis – but you can check out progress in the Quilter Street Olive stream on Flickr.

Right – just off to check the colour of the water…