How to cure your own olives

Do you have an olive tree in your yard and don’t know what to do with the olives? Red Rock Olives provides you with 10 simple steps, that will turn your olives from bitter and inedible, to delicious home cured olives - the perfect accompaniment for a cheese platter.

When are your olives ripe?

In Victoria, olives are picked between April and June. It depends on the variety of olives, but generally speaking if you want your olives firm and not soft after curing, you should pick your olives when the olives are turning from green to black on the tree.

Note: No matter what size your olive is, the ratio of pit to flesh is always the same.

Curing steps:

1.         Wash and sterilise jars, including lids

2.         Prepare the brine – 3 litres of water and 210 grams of salt. Note: Brine is salty water that needs to be between 7% and 10% to cure the olives.

3.         Add 50ml of vinegar

4.         Fill the jars to 2/3 of olives

5.         Cover the olives with brine mix and ensure all the olives are submerged. To help keep the olives immersed, place a plate on top of the olives as a weight.

6.         Place lid on jar, but do not seal

7.         Taste olives after one month and then every two weeks. If needed, top up with fresh brine

8.         Do not remove the mould from the top of the olives

9.         The process is complete when the olives are to your desired taste. Depending on the variety it can take months to cure – don’t lose heart.

10.   Once the olives are to your taste, rinse them, place them in a clean jar with fresh brine and add a tablespoon of olive oil to seal the surface. Seal the jar.

Note: The olives need to be kept above 15 degrees Celsius for the olives to cure.

Sounds too hard? Let us do it for you. Get olives delivered straight to your door for us, the experts.

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