Olives

Posted on October 24, 2007 | 10 Comments


It’s supposed to be blog action day, but I’m going to write about olives.
We’re busy packing, tying up loose strings, preparing the animals for our departure from the farm. We’ll be gone for almost a month! And yet, it’s olive season. Usually we drive up to Davis, Ca for olives, but this year we found some right down the street. One tree is in the ghetto. There’re olives on the ground, and a few prostitutes standing on the corner. We picked there first, then went to Emeryville, a weird new tech region of the East Bay. After five minutes of picking from a local parks four trees, a woman yelled at us from her door: “Watch out for the plants! Don’t step on the plantings there.” I couldn’t believe this barbarian. Has she no manners? “Ok,” I was forced to yell. “We’re not stepping on the plants.” The plants were some mexican feather grass. I think it freaked her out that someone was actually harvesting fruit in a neighborhood. We must’ve been so desperate. Maybe we are. Once home, I washed the olives, poured them into a pillow case, and tossed in a whole box of kosher salt. We’re expecting them to be ready when we return.

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10 responses to “Olives”

  1. Unknown's avatar Becca | October 24, 2007 at 10:17 pm |

    I’ve never made my own olives before, how do they taste after leaving them in straight salt? Is it much different than leaving them in brine?

    Where I live, there are a ton of mulberry trees, and people always think that I am crazy when I ask if I can take some.

  2. Unknown's avatar Novella Carpenter | October 25, 2007 at 5:01 am |

    becca;
    no way! mulberries are my favorite. are they the white ones? red ones? one day i’m going to get one. the fruit just explodes in your mouth.
    the salt cured olives just don’t require using lye, that’s why i use that method. just lazy.

  3. Unknown's avatar samin | October 25, 2007 at 5:48 am |

    i’ll miss you, miss. will you blog from the road? also, if you got rid of the benz, how are you taking a road trip?

  4. Unknown's avatar Riana Lagarde | October 25, 2007 at 7:23 am |

    Fun, we should try this! I think that there are some olive trees around here.

    Yesterday we scored a whole bag of fallen pine nuts. We only had to jump one fence with the baby, but it was worth it, they taste 100 times better than store bought pine nuts. Do you have any pine trees near you?

    Maybe you’ll find some great stuff on the road trip!

  5. Unknown's avatar Becca | October 25, 2007 at 4:23 pm |

    Novella,

    I’ve never had the white ones. Here in Virginia I’ve only seen red ones. Although they are white before they ripen… I will have to keep an eye out for them.

  6. Unknown's avatar Novella Carpenter | October 25, 2007 at 7:44 pm |

    hey, well, we had–cough cough–two cars. my bf is a mechanic, we once had 6 cars. i’ll send a photo of the car before we go, it’s pretty ghetto-rific. samin, i’m going to stop in the resto friday to check on the lardo!
    becca, the red ones are the best, actually, so you’re in heaven. do you ever dry them?
    riana, you’re insane and i love it. it must take forever to pick out all the nuts.

  7. Unknown's avatar eauque | October 26, 2007 at 3:54 am |

    Wait, wait. Is Novella’s Car

    http://eauque.com/images/novellasCar.jpg gone?

    Or is the wagon gone?

  8. Unknown's avatar eauque | October 26, 2007 at 4:15 am |

    My Mom and I say “Olives” which means I love you. We love Olives!

  9. Unknown's avatar Trevor | October 26, 2007 at 6:43 pm |

    You should make some Pasta alla Puttanesca with your olives. It roughly translates to “Pasta In The Style Of The Whore”, which would be deliciously appropriate for their origin.

  10. Unknown's avatar Sara | October 29, 2007 at 11:11 am |

    i’ve never had the salt cured ones, my mom made some from the Davis trees one year with lye in the bath tub!

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