Our Olives Are Finished!

We're very excited. The olives are ready.
They've been out in the sun for about a week.
It's raining today, so a good day to bring them in
and get them jarred.

On the Screen

Nice and sun dried

We are keeping some on the counter for eating this next month.

The rest will be tossed with a teaspoon of olive oil, put into a jar, and stored in the fridge.

We have done a bit more research and decided that is what will work for us.

Free Olives!

What could be better!?

Nutritarian Corn Bread

Well, I had a hankering for bread so I made some nutritarian corn bread tonight to go with my beans.

I used a recipe from Dr. Fuhrman's book.
It ended up not tasting like your grandma's cornbread.It was more like cake - sweet and spicy.

Good with beans!
And great if you're craving bread.

But if you want something more savory, I'd either skip the spice or change the spices.1 cup cornmeal

1 cup oat flour (just make it by putting oats in the blender)
1 tablespoon baking powder
6 dates, pitted
1 cup nut milk
1/4 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
1 cup baked, peeled sweet potato (I'm not peeling mine)
2 tablespoons ground flax seed
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1 cup frozen corn kernels

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F

Combine cornmeal, oat flour, and baking powder in a large bowl. Stir well and set aside.

In a high powered blender, combine dates, milk, coconut, potato, flax and spices. If you don't have a high powered blender, soak the dates overnight first to soften them.

Combine with dry ingredients, stirring just until combined.

The mixture from the blender is very thick.


Stir in frozen corn kernels.



Pour into non-stick square baking dish, cast iron skillet, or bake as muffins.

I used my cast iron skillet

Bake for 30 minutes or until top is golden. Cool 10-15 minutes before serving.



Changes I made:


I only had 1/2 cup sweet potato so I put that plus a half cup of avocado.

NOTE: This recipe comes from Dr. Fuhrman's book.

One person on the website said they added cumin, chili powder, and dried jalapenos.

It got very good reviews.

I will make this again sometime.

Good luck!

Olives are nearly done!

A few days ago, we put two changes of clean water into the jar of olives to begin taking salt and the rest of the tannin out of them.  This plumped them up considerably.  See the first blog here:  DIY Greek Olives and the second part here:  Olives Part Two - I fell off the wagon  (Scroll Down)

I put about a half dozen in a brine of vinegar and water for a couple of days, and MAN, they were GOOD! So I figured they were ready.

Today, Joe laid them out on a screen in the sun. We will leave them out until they shrivel up and dry a bit.

Then, we will keep a jar of them, put in a brine of vinegar and water, in the refrigerator, and pack the rest in freezer bags and store in the freezer. The olives will last 3-6 months in the freezer in brine, but we just don't eat THAT many olives. This harvest should last us a year.

Here are photos of the olives, just laid out on a screen in the sun.

This was an easy project that cost very little in time or money. The olives were free for the taking. All that was needed to prepare them was a gallon jar and about 3 cups of salt. We used sea salt, but you can use any pure salt.

We took mostly olives off the tree, but if you look online, some people prefer the windfall olives. Next year, I may try those as well..