Naturally Curing Olives
General Guidelines For Cold Curing
Olives With Sea Salt
(Aerobic Method)
Fresh picked olives are good candidates for lacto-fermentation because they are high in lactic acids. Along with various bacteria, yeasts and molds, the process of fermentation takes place. Depending on the temperature, Kalamatas can take 4 or 5 months, Sevillanos can take up to 10 months and Manzanillas or Cerignolas can take up to 18 months.
To start, place the olives in clean water and keep them submerged. Between rinses you can keep them topped off with water, but it’s very important to keep them submerged but not sealed off from the air. Avoid chlorinated water and vinegar, as they will kill the healthful bacteria. It’s best to keep the olives at room temperature (around 70°). The night time temperature can drop, but below 50° the fermentation is suspended and practically stops. Above 80° the fermentation speeds up rapidly, and foaming or off-gassing needs to be monitored closely. Above 80° the wrong sets of bacteria are being fostered, and the olives can develop an off-smell. If this occurs you must rinse them more often and lower the temperature. There is a slight forgiveness factor here, but these problems must be corrected quickly. You want to keep them smelling fresh.
By rinsing the olives you are also helping to de-bitter them, similar to the American Indians’ rinsing their acorns on the side of a stream. Both the oak and olive trees are high in tannins, and these bitter elements are slightly poisonous, so need to be rinsed out; not to mention, olives that are too bitter are not as palatable or enjoyable. But water rinsing too long makes the olives soft, even mushy, which isn’t enjoyable either. So, don’t worry too much at this stage if the olives are still bitter, because “time” will de-bitter them after they’re put into the salt brine.
As the active fermentation or bubbling slows down significantly or stops (more evident above 70°), it’s time to add sea salt. The amount of salt is proportionate to how long and cold you intend to store them. If you intend to keep them for a year in a refrigerator or six months in a root cellar, you can make the brine as strong as possible; and put the olives back in plain water for a few days when you are ready to eat them, to rinse the salt back out. Otherwise, a light sea salt brine is fine if you intend to consume them in a couple of months and will store them in the refrigerator. Use your own sense of taste. Also, any white yeast-type molds that occur on top of the brine or threads of lactic acids are to be encouraged and not a sign the olives are bad. If allowed to populate, a white film forms across the entire opening, turning to a blue-green penicillin mold (evident below 50°). Wherever you see this blue-green mold you will never see the black or red molds. This is a good lesson how fermented foods work in our own gut, killing the harmful bacteria. In any case, if black or red molds occur or the olives smell off somehow, there is reason for concern. Notice the smell and taste for both the olives and the brine to be sure they stay fresh.
The raw right-off-the-tree olives we send you are field-run and very ripe by the industry standards. There are 3-4 stages of ripeness of fruit on the trees at time of harvest. The black and purple colors can fade back out in the water, especially with the ripe Sevillanos when the purple color hasn't reached all the way to the pit. Kalamatas in Greece are picked at the greener stage, so their machinery works better; then they are aerated with hoses of air in the barrels to turn them black. In California all olives are picked green and turned black with ferrous gluconate, a black dye. We pick our olives as ripe as possible, so you can enjoy them the way nature intended.
Welcome to the artisan’s world of fermentation. Enjoy the process. Add it to your résumé.
Naturally Brined Olives
(Anaerobic Method)
Counter to the above aerobic fermentation method there is an anaerobic curing method that teaches to add salt, as well as lactic or citric acid, to the olives right away and to close the lids on the containers tightly, sealing off the air. This method is not a true ferment by any means, although it is referred to as salt brined. The anaerobic method depends on the four stages of bacteria (each one coming on the dying heels of the one before) doing all the curing. Little attention, if any, is paid to rinsing or to temperature; in fact, the barrels are left in the fields or warehouse lots in the summer sun to get 140° as part of their recipe. These finished olives don’t need refrigeration. They are in the same group with the olive industry’s lye cured pasteurized olives, where their goal is to produce a shelf stable product.
In Conclusion
Our mission is to return the olive to its superfood status. Only an aerobic method of cold-curing produces an enzyme active olive, with all of its living properties. This is the “fresh” olive of Mediterranean Europe and the Middle East and the reason olives were on every lunch and dinner table for thousands of years.
We believe these are the most nutritious olives and also the most delicious. You be the judge.