First batch of homemade organic olives

After a winter of curing, we have our first batch of homegrown, home-brewed olives, just in time for the Spring Equinox!

We harvested these olives last fall.  The trees were planted several years ago along the edge of our biodynamic Cabernet vineyard.  Most of the fruit hung in shades of green, some with accents of red and black. The olives filled two large 5-gallon glass carboys, along with an assortment of tenacious stems and leaves.

To leech out the bitterness, we rinsed the olives in fresh spring water from last October until the new year.  Then we cured the batches by adding garlic, lemons, and salt. Several brines later, we bottled the olives and delivered them to the community.  They made great table olives.  The year before last we pressed our olives and had our first run of homemade olive oil, which we’ll talk about in a future post.