Can you eat ripe olives off the tree?
California Ripe Olives (meaning, olives meant for eating, not for olive oil) are harvested by hand. It can take one worker a whole day to pick just one tree! Also, a word to the wise, ripe olives right off the tree are insanely bitter. It's only through the curing process that they become tasty enough for us to eat.
What color are olives when ripe?
Olives are a bitter fruit that ranges from light green to dark black in color. The color of your olives is due to ripeness, not the variety of olive plants. These fruits start as light green and ripen to a reddish-brown before finally turning black.
When are olives ripe to pick?
Knowing when to pick your olives will ensure that you pick fruit that has the taste you're after. The appearance of the olives will often vary from green to black, which is indicative of the level of ripeness. Olives are typically harvested from late August through November each year.
How are California ripe olives harvested?
California Ripe Olives (meaning, olives meant for eating, not for olive oil) are harvested by hand. It can take one worker a whole day to pick just one tree! Also, a word to the wise, ripe olives right off the tree are insanely bitter. It’s only through the curing process that they become tasty enough for us to eat.
Do olives ripen off the tree?
All olives on the tree will not be in the same state of maturity, so you can continue to pick for brine curing as they ripen. To pick for Greek style curing, handpick when the olives mature and have turned from dark red to purple. Once cured, the olives will turn black.
How do you tell when olives are ready to pick?
Most olives are ready to harvest when the juice turns cloudy, at the “green ripe” stage in late September. They ripen to an uneven reddish-brown through November, finally darkening to the “naturally black ripe” stage by early December. Olives in this stage have a high oil content and are easily bruised.
How long do olives take to ripen on the tree?
Production and harvesting Ultimately a good-sized tree can yield up to 40 kg. Fruit takes from 6 to 8 months to ripen with some table olives being harvested while still green while olives like Kalamata are left until they are black and fully ripe.
How do you pick olives off a tree?
Hand or Mechanical Harvesting However, more growers are using modern machinery to help them harvest the crop, particularly for the largest orchards. At the simplest level, this may only mean using a long handled, vibrating tong to shake the olives from the branches and onto nets spread out under the tree.
How do you store olives after picking?
Place the cracked olives into a food-grade plastic pail (or other container as listed above) and cover olives with fresh, cool water. Keep the olives submerged by placing a heavy plate or a sealed plastic food-storage bag filled with water over the fruit.
Why do olives fall off the tree?
Olive Knot The galls restrict the movement of food and water through the tree, causing parts of the tree to starve and die. As shoots die back, the leaves dry and fall from the tree.
What time of the year are olives harvested?
Olive trees generally bloom in May, with small cream-colored flowers blossoming throughout the orchards, and continue to grow and start to ripen throughout the summer. Harvesting begins in the early Fall while the olives are still green in color, but are starting to darken.
Why are my olives wrinkled on the tree?
Dry-cured olives have a deeply concentrated flavor, and a wrinkly, prune-like appearance. Oil-cured olives are dry-cured olives that get macerated, or softened, in oil for several months. Lye-curing: Large commercial olive producers make use of this time- and cost-effective method.
How long do olives take to cure?
Curing the Olives For a brine-cure, place the prepared olives in a mixture of 1 part salt to 10 parts water, making sure they're submerged, and leave for 3 to 6 weeks, changing the brine every week and shaking the pan once a day.
Are black olives green olives?
It may surprise you to learn that the only difference between green olives and black olives is ripeness; unripe olives are green, whereas fully ripe olives are black.
How many olives are on a tree?
Some mature trees which have not been pruned can reach 40-60 feet in height and produce up to 800 kilos of olives while others only produce 50. For the same size tree, some varieties have more or larger olives.
What do you do with olives off the tree?
Combine 1 part salt to 10 parts water and pour over the olives in a bowl or pot. Weigh them down with a plate and let sit for 1 week. Drain the olives and repeat the brining process for another week. Do this two more times so they brine for about a month or so.
Why are my olives wrinkled on the tree?
Dry-cured olives have a deeply concentrated flavor, and a wrinkly, prune-like appearance. Oil-cured olives are dry-cured olives that get macerated, or softened, in oil for several months. Lye-curing: Large commercial olive producers make use of this time- and cost-effective method.
Do all olives turn black?
Ripe olives turn from green to a dark color ranging anywhere from light brown to a deep black color. After they're harvested, the ripe olives undergo a curing process that can turn them even darker. Just like their green counterparts, black olives are high in monounsaturated fats, calcium, and potassium.
Why are my olives mushy?
The salt in the brine, together with an acidic element such as vinegar or a slice of lemon; and a layer of oil at the very top of the bottled olives, all help in the preserving. If you find that the olives are soft and mushy when you go to eat them, they have not been preserved properly and MUST be discarded.
How to tell if olives are mature?
To judge the maturity of an entire olive crop, pick 100 random olives from several plants. Give each olive a number 0 through 7 based on its physical appearance. Give "0" for each olive that is fully green with hard flesh; "1" for each olive that is yellowish-green and firm; "2" for skin that is beginning to show pink, purple or red, but is still firm; "3" for olives with mostly pink, purple or red skin, but still have some yellow or green at one end and slightly soft flesh; "4" for light purple to black skin, but with green, cream or white flesh, "5" for skin that is colored with a small amount of pigmentation; "6" for black skin and violet flesh; and "7" for olives with black skin and flesh that is dark all the way to the pit. Total the points and divide by 100 (or the total number of fruit). An average between 2.5 to 4.5 is used to pick olives for oil; an average between 3.0 to 5.0 indicate that the olives have reached their maximum oil content.
When are olives harvested?
Olives are typically harvested from late August through November each year . The olives must be picked when the majority of olives have reached there desired level of ripeness. There are three stages of ripeness -- immature, slightly mature and mature. Olives in each stage will taste different and yield a different amount of olive oil.
What is the taste of an olive?
When the olive is green and firm, it is immature. Olives can be picked at this stage, but these olives will produce a bitter taste. Olives that are yellow-green to red-purple, or in the veraison stage, are slightly mature. Olives picked in this stage will have a slightly bitter ...
How long do green olives last?
Green olives will yield the lowest amount of oil, but oil extracted from this fruit will produce the highest level of anti-oxidants and will keep on the shelf for up to six months. Olives in the veraison stage will also produce a high amount of anti-oxidants, but not as high as green olives.
How many points do you need to pick olives for oil?
Total the points and divide by 100 (or the total number of fruit). An average between 2.5 to 4.5 is used to pick olives for oil; an average between 3.0 to 5.0 indicate that the olives have reached their maximum oil content. Advertisement.
Which olives have the sweetest oil?
Black olives produce the sweetest oils that are more golden in color. These olives will yield the highest amount of oil, but will produce the lowest amount of anti-oxidants and will keep on the shelf for two to three months. Advertisement.
When do you harvest olives?
Harvesting generally occurs between late August through December. The exact timing will depend on factors such as your region, the variety of olive, and the desired ripeness of your olives. The weather can play a significant role in when you harvest, as a cold fall could cause the fruit not to ripen as you want.
Why do people like green olives?
Many people prefer green olives due to their beneficial properties, such as being antioxidant-rich. Green olives don’t produce as much oil because they contain vacuoles within the cells that don’t easily rupture.
Why are my olives turning black?
Olives are a bitter fruit that ranges from light green to dark black in color. The color of your olives is due to ripeness , not the variety of olive plants. These fruits start as light green and ripen to a reddish-brown before finally turning black.
What is the last option for curing olives?
Lye curing is the last option for curing olives. This process is complicated, but it results in an almost buttery flavored olive that has been stripped of all the oleuropein. To perform a lye cure: You will need lye and cold water, plus sea salt for the brine, which comes after the curing process.
What is the bitter fruit that grows on trees?
Olives are a bitter fruit that grows on trees, which you can harvest to brine for eating, or press to make olive oil. There are also many health benefits to olives, depending on the ripeness.
What color are olives in November?
If not picked, the olives will turn from green to yellow-green and then to a reddish-brown color by November, with a softer feel. This stage is veraison. The olives will retain a high polyphenol content at this stage.
How long does it take for green olives to mellow?
Green olives have a longer shelf life but a more pungent bitter taste that takes several months to mellow. Green olives are usually cured to remove some of the bitter flavorings, but it does take a long process and time before the flavor mellows.
Where did olive trees originate?
Archaeological and scientific evidence indicates that the olive tree ( Olea europaea) was most likely first cultivated on the border between Turkey and Syria, spreading from there throughout the Mediterranean, to Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon, Greece, Italy, France, and Spain. People in the eastern Mediterranean have been grinding olives for oil the last 6,000-8,000 years. Olive oil was used for cooking, cosmetics, medicine, and in lamps. The original Olympic torch burned olive oil. The ancient city-state of Athens was said to have been named for the deity who gave Greek culture its greatest gift: Poseidon made a bid for the prize by producing the horse, but Athena won hands down by creating the olive tree.
Where did olives come from?
Olives came to the Americas with the Spaniards: an olive grove was planted in Lima, Peru, in the mid-16 th century; and Spanish Franciscans planted olives in mission gardens in California in the 1700s. While these west coast olives thrived, however, attempts to establish olives on the east coast fizzled.
What percentage of the world's olives are used to make olive oil?
About 90 percent of the world’s olive crop goes to make olive oil. The remainder is harvested for table olives which, though there are over 2,000 known olive cultivars, are known to most of us in two colors: green and black. Green olives, the kind found in martinis, are picked green and unripe and then cured.
How long does it take for olives to be edible?
This was somewhat improved by fermenting the olives in brine, which was marginally quicker, but the Romans found that supplementing the brine with lye from wood ashes (sodium hydroxide) cut the time required for producing an edible olive from months to hours. (See this Roman recipe for spiced olives .)
How did the Romans make olives?
This was somewhat improved by fermenting the olives in brine, which was marginally quicker, but the Romans found that supplementing the brine with lye from wood ashes (sodium hydroxide) cut the time required for producing an edible olive from months to hours. (See this Roman recipe for spiced olives .)
What did the Greeks harvest for oil?
A 1944 artist's rendering suggests how ancient Greeks may have harvested olives for oil.
How many pictures did Vincent van Gogh paint of olive trees?
One last fact: Vincent van Gogh, who appreciated olives, painted 19 pictures of olive trees.
How to get olives from a tree?
Pluck the olives that you want from the olive bush or tree by hand. Look for lower hanging branches with olives on them. Wear a pair of gardening gloves and pluck the olives that you want from the tree. Place the olives in a bucket or bag to transport them.
How to harvest olives from a tree?
Hit the tree with a rod to harvest a lot of olives at once. Lay down a plastic tarp under the branches of the olive tree. Then, lightly hit olive-bearing branches with a rod or long stick. Olives will be detached from the branches and fall to the tarp below.
How to clean olives from a garden?
1. Rinse the olives under cold water to remove dirt. Pour the olives that you picked into a colander and rinse them with water. Continue rinsing them for 30 seconds to 1 minute to remove any dirt, dust, or pesticides that may be on the olives. Once you're done, set the olives aside to let them dry.
How to make olive oil with salt?
Place the olives in a container like a mason jar with a lid. Leave at least 1 inch (2.5 cm) of space between the olives and the lid. The container must be airtight for the curing process to work correctly. Boil 1 cup (240 ml) of water per 1.5 tablespoons (22 ml) of salt.
What does it mean when an olive is overripe?
Overripe olives are mushy and shriveled. Discard any olives that appear overripe.
What is ripe olive?
Ripe olives are black or dark purple, shaped like an oval, and should have a spongy exterior. Olives typically start as green olives and get darker as they become riper. Ripe purplish colored olives are less bitter and pungent than green olives. Green olives are also firmer than ripe olives.
Can you put olives in brine?
The hot brine will help create an airtight seal and will prevent microbial growth in your olive container. If you don't have enough brine to cover all of the olives, make more.
