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..