Home made OLIVES?!?!?!

My olives - after many had already been eaten

I live in the northeastern part of the US, so I don't get to see olives growing on trees anywhere close to where I live. But my lineage includes Italian and Mediterranean (Sicilian) blood, and I love olives - every incarnation of them - and my young boys are learning. My husband remains unconvinced - and it's the one food he will not willingly even try.
Ok, so, I did try a "candied" version of olives, purchased in Chinatown more than 15 years ago, and I will NEVER need to do that again. And black canned olives should just be BANNED, but otherwise...olives are my friend.
So, last November, when I brought home 2 small plastic wrapped styrofoam trays of bright green, hard-as-rocks, globes, the kids were curious, but my husband was not even remotely amused. I'd brought the enemy home to roost.
I, however, remember my grandfather bringing them home and making them into delicious morsels of briny goodness, so when I'd seen them, sitting lonely and abandoned in the reduced produce section of the local veggie mart, I had to give it a try.

Grampy - ca 1956 (10 years before I was born)

I googled, and searched my memory and taste buds...but the memories are so old and no in my living family remembers how grampy made his olives, just the vague recollection of a mallet, salt and oil. So I had to start from scratch with info found on-line.
I wasn't even sure how my experiment would go so I only have pictures of the finished product.
I looked at a lot of recommendations on many sites, but
I ended up using the notes and process written by Hank at Honest Food.
I slit each olive with a sharp knife down to the pit, and I put them in a canning jar with fresh water, put a small plate on top to push all of the olives under. Then put the jar in the "garage" cabinet in my kitchen, and changed the water - trying for daily - for about a month.
Honestly, it was during the holiday season, so there were times when I'd forget about them for a day or two....and I may have done this for closer to 5 weeks, until I was good and ready to look up the brine recipe again.

Grampy with my mom and uncle

Somewhere around the 2 week mark, when I would change the water I'd smell the familiar olive oil smell as I drained and re-filled the jar. During this time, my kids were skeptical, my husband was tolerant...
He was fairly certan that this experiment would end up as compost.

I took vacation time from my day-job during the Christmas/New Year week and decided that I should probably do-up the olives when I was relaxed and not running from one place to another...and before they really did become compost.

So I re-did my google search, found Hank's site again, and pretty much followed his brine recipe verbatim. It is really really easy:

Green Olive Brine:

1/4 cup kosher salt
4 cups cool water    
1/2 cup of white wine vinegar
plus herbs 

I went with the following of his recommendations: bay leaves, coriander, lemon rind, a chili,  rosemary, and garlic.
 
As Hank said - "these water-cured olives taste like olives" — mine are only very slightly bitter, and they are much crisper and firmer than any you will get at a deli counter.  

He also says that they will last a year in the fridge....I will be lucky if they last a couple of months of judicious rationing...next time  - yes, there will be a next time - I'm making more!

Easy Refridgerator Pickles - 2 styles

Garlic Dills

1Qt Water

1/2 C Salt

1 C white vinegar

8-12 Pickling Cucumbers

Garlic & Dill to taste

1-2 Quart Size Mason Jars / Jars from Tomato Sauce or any Large container

(I used a plastic container initially and moved them to jars after I found some that would work)

Wash pickles, quarter and put in jars with garlic and dill.

Mix salt, water and vinegar and pour over pickles filling jars. (Any large jars will do.)

Leave pickles at room temperature for 3 days.

Refrigerate after that.

Sweet & Salty Slices (with mixed veggies)

sliced onions

green peppers, cut in strips

Green or Yellow Beans

Daikon Radish slices

AND

Enough sliced cucumber to fill a gallon jar (do not peel cucumbers)

4 c. sugar

3 c. vinegar

1/3 c. pickling salt (not iodized)

1 tsp. turmeric

1 1/2 tsp. celery seed

1 tsp. mustard seed

If you don't have a gallon jar you can also use Quart or Pint sized Mason jars...of course any jars will do as these will not be sealed.

Wash and slice veggies and put them in your jars.

(I made 1 jar with just yellow beans and onion slices, and put a mix of veggies in the other jars)

Mix sugar, vinegar and spices together in a pitcher or bowl with a spout until sugar is dissolved.

Pour liquid over vegetables in jar.

Mixture may not completely cover pickles, that's ok.

Refridgerate.

Ready to eat the next day.

Will keep all winter in refrigerator.

In the picture these don't look as yellow as they became later from the tumeric. They are both very yummy!