This year has been a good one for olives (at least, for the olive tree in a
pot we have in the back garden) and we have some reasonable sized olives -
probably enough to fill one large jar. This could be the year we process our
first crop of olives :-)

What surprised me (although I guess it shouldn't have) is how thirsty the
trees are when bearing fruit.

I noticed a while back that the olives were wrinkly and wondered why, as the
tree in general looked perfectly happy and the small crop of weeds in the
pot (left in as indicators of soil health) were a nice green colour and
healthy so the pot wasn't starved or very dry.

However when we had the massive downpour a few weeks back and the pot got a
good watering off the garage roof I noticed that the olives were now plump.

Yesterday I noticed they were wrinkly again and gave the pot a good
watering.
Now they have plumped up again - currently a light green colour with an
attractive light freckling.
This makes me wonder if I should have been massively watering the pot to
encourage the olives to grow big and juicy - something to consider for next
year.

Anyone else got olives cropping at the moment?

Previous years ours have been tiny but have turned black eventually. I am
now in a quandry - should I harvest them soon as green olives or should I
wait until they turn black and risk losing the crop to birds, frost, gales
etc. later on this autumn?

Cheers

Dave R

David WE Roberts writes

What surprised me (although I guess it shouldn't have) is how thirsty
the trees are when bearing fruit.

I've been in caves in Greece with roots coming through a long way from
the surface. I've come to the conclusion a lot of the plants that cope
with dry habitats do so at least in part by producing roots long enough
to get at deeply buried water.


Previous years ours have been tiny but have turned black eventually. I
am now in a quandry - should I harvest them soon as green olives or
should I wait until they turn black and risk losing the crop to birds,
frost, gales etc. later on this autumn?

Doesn't that depend in part as to whether you prefer green or black
olives?

I may be wrong, but I have a memory that black olives require more
complicated processing than green.
--
Kay

On Fri, 2 Oct 2009 14:49:43 +0100, K wrote:

David WE Roberts writes

What surprised me (although I guess it shouldn't have) is how thirsty
the trees are when bearing fruit.

I've been in caves in Greece with roots coming through a long way from
the surface. I've come to the conclusion a lot of the plants that cope
with dry habitats do so at least in part by producing roots long enough
to get at deeply buried water.


Previous years ours have been tiny but have turned black eventually. I
am now in a quandry - should I harvest them soon as green olives or
should I wait until they turn black and risk losing the crop to birds,
frost, gales etc. later on this autumn?

Doesn't that depend in part as to whether you prefer green or black
olives?

I may be wrong, but I have a memory that black olives require more
complicated processing than green.

I thought black olives were unfermented and thus the processing was
simpler.

Steve

--
Neural Planner Software Ltd www.NPSL1.com

"Stephen Wolstenholme" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 2 Oct 2009 14:49:43 +0100, K wrote:

David WE Roberts writes
snip
Doesn't that depend in part as to whether you prefer green or black
olives?

I may be wrong, but I have a memory that black olives require more
complicated processing than green.

I thought black olives were unfermented and thus the processing was
simpler.

Steve


All olives need fermenting to make them edible. They taste incredibly
bitter otherwise so I don't know why birds find them so appealing.
I've heard you can cure them by soaking them in water for up to six months
but brine is better. There are lots of recipes (traditional and commercial)
on the web if you google for them.
R.

On Fri, 2 Oct 2009 15:51:37 +0100, "Ragnar" wrote:


"Stephen Wolstenholme" wrote in message
.. .
On Fri, 2 Oct 2009 14:49:43 +0100, K wrote:

David WE Roberts writes
snip
Doesn't that depend in part as to whether you prefer green or black
olives?

I may be wrong, but I have a memory that black olives require more
complicated processing than green.

I thought black olives were unfermented and thus the processing was
simpler.

Steve


All olives need fermenting to make them edible. They taste incredibly
bitter otherwise so I don't know why birds find them so appealing.
I've heard you can cure them by soaking them in water for up to six months
but brine is better. There are lots of recipes (traditional and commercial)
on the web if you google for them.
R.


Black olives do not need to be fermented and are often are only cured
but Green olives take both treatments to get rid of the bitter taste.
Years ago in Greece I sampled fresh olives, picked the previous day,
unfermented, uncured apart from some dry salt and they didn't taste
bitter. There are some varieties of olives that are not bitter and can
be eaten fresh off the tree.

Steve

--
Neural Planner Software Ltd www.NPSL1.com

Stephen Wolstenholme writes
Black olives do not need to be fermented and are often are only cured
but Green olives take both treatments to get rid of the bitter taste.
Years ago in Greece I sampled fresh olives, picked the previous day,
unfermented, uncured apart from some dry salt and they didn't taste
bitter. There are some varieties of olives that are not bitter and can
be eaten fresh off the tree.

Last year our drinks were being served with a plate of green olives,
picked from the owner's mother's tree and kept in brine for a few months
- at least that's what we understood from a combination of hesitant
english on his part and infinitely worse greek on ours. (I am sure about
the tree, though - we were taken to see it!)
--
Kay

On Oct 2, 1:25*pm, "David WE Roberts" wrote:
This year has been a good one for olives

"On behalf of the assembled company I would just like to say how much
we enjoyed the repast of which we have just partaken. I particularly
liked those little hard green plums."

"Thems were olives."

"I don't care whose they were, they were bleedin' hard."

Benny Hill & Tommy Steele from 'Light Up the Sky' from many years ago.

I'll get my coat!