We harvested 1.15 tonnes of olives for olive oil up at the Greek Hovel last week. These are the small olives you might see in a tree at your local garden centre, perhaps a centimetre in length. But there are three or four trees on our land which we do not harvest for they produce much larger, black, edible olives and, as you can see below, I brought 35 of them back to the Welsh Hovel.
30 of them I am trying to cure to turn into edible olives. I am told that they need ten days in water with the water changed each day, five days in brine and then 5 days in either vinegar or oil before we can eat them. So that process is underway.
The other five, Joshua and I plan to plant, after removing the flesh, in pots tomorrow. I have no idea if they will take but I will keep them in a shed near enough to the boiler so they should avoid the worst of the Welsh winter. If they germinate I will keep them indoors for a couple of years until they are saplings and then plant them in one of the top fields so they escape any flooding and get the maximum sunshine.
I am not sure if I will ever actually enjoy a full harvest of edible olives here in Wales but it is worth a shot.
