Making olives - my favorite recipe.

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Olive harvest period has started and I feel this sweet bitter pain in my whole body! I can't do a lot of things when I return back home, just a hot bath and maybe a movie. Today is day off and while laying on the couch it is a great time for a post and all I can think of about posting is olives!

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Photo by @fotostef.

A few days ago I went out with @fotostef and my cute basket to collect some fruits and make edible olives. I guess you all know that you can't eat olives straight from the tree as they are very bitter. There are plenty of ways for making them edible, but here I am going to share my favorite way. It is my favorite for three reasons. First the olives this way are delicious, they are not too salty and last but not least it is the most lazy way to make olives :)

First photo is by @fotostef.

We collect the finest fruits, picking them by hand. We have a favorite tree for this case, a variety that makes bigger olives than the usual ones here. Almost every olive grove has at least one of these trees for making olives for the house. The commonly cultivated variety here is koroneiki, excellent for olive oil.


You need salt, citric acid, water and a few plastic bottles. The plastic seems to be the only disadvantage of this process, but it is impossible to use glass due to the expansion that takes place during the process and that could break a glass bottle. So, reusing some plastic bottles is the only way to go.


Wash the olives well.

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Green and purple olives are the ideal for this technique, so avoid mature black ones!

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You put them one by one in the bottles. This sounds boring and it actually is, but it is also a great way to check them one by one before they get into the bottle and it's too late :)

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You fill with olives leaving a free space of about 7-8 cm from the top of the bottle.

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The recipe for a 1,5 l bittle is:
1 1/2 tea spoon citric acid and
1/2 tea spoon salt

Simple as that!

Salt (left) and citric acid (right).

You mix them with some water, put it in the bottle and add water until they are all covered.

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Then you add some olive oil, about 3 cm (there must still be some free space till the top), you let them open until we the following day.

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The following day, you close them and you completely forget them in a dry and dark place. And this is the reason I love it. No need for doing anything during the next period. If you are anything like me, suffering to remember to mix or change water every day, then this is the way :) Plus they turn out to be so nice every time the last 7 years I make them this way.


You wait at least 3-4 months and then they are ready.
Very important: you DON'T open the bottle. You make a small hole with a knife so that the pressure will be released and you cut the bottle and put the olives in jars.


In olive oil and sage (left) and in their brine (right)..

Usually one bottle is two jars of the size I use. I put olive oil and herbs in the jar I am going to eat first and in the other one the olives with their brine (and some olive oil on top). When time comes, I will also put these ones in olive oil with herbs.
The recipe doesn't use much salt, but by preserving them in olive oil makes it feel even less salty. Ideal for people with high blood pressure or any other reason for a diet low in salt.

Olives are rich in antioxidants, add them in your daily life and enjoy! Always moderately :)



All the pictures and the words are mine unless mentioned otherwise.

If you would like to know more about me this is my introduction post.



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51 comments
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It looks like you have a good system :) ... But why not get some plastic bottles with bigger openings 😂 ?

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But why not get some plastic bottles with bigger openings 😂 ?

Ahahahaha! That would be great 🤣

Thank you so much for your support :)

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Very cool process, and one that would be right up my alley, if I could have olive trees here...

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Hi there, @traisto. 😃 Your olives look so fresh and the trees lovely. Is the process of cultivating them hard? I've never seen an olive farm before so your pictures do much justice. So after 3-4 months, the olives become edible?

Nice pictures. Thanks for sharing and happy weekend. 😊😊

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Thank you very much @ladytitan!

Olive trees are resilient, cultivating them is not that demanding to be honest. Of course, they need to be pruned etc but they are very patient and kind to humans :)
Harvesting period though is quite demanding and hard work, but we take the precious olive oil!

With this method they are ready after 3-4 months. There are other methods to get edible olives much sooner but this is the method I like most :)

Thank you for stopping by!

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I have recently read about salting olives to make them edible, but what's your few on fermenting them?

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There are many methods for making them edible and salting is one of them and a great one, especially if you are in the mood for something salty. It requires stirring them every day and I am not good in remembering this kind of things :)

Salt, citric acid and olive oil on top are the three ingredients that make it work in this recipe :)

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Love it. I will give it a try. thank you for sharing !

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Love it. I will give it a try. thank you for sharing !

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Love it. I will give it a try. thank you for sharing !

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Love it. I will give it a try. thank you for sharing !

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Love it. I will give it a try. thank you for sharing !

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Love it. I will give it a try. thank you for sharing !
I also loved your introduction post, so thank you for sharing it here too.
I follow @fotostef and love his work.

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Thank you so much dear @bigorna1!
Let me know if you try it :)

And thank you for taking the time to read my intro, much appreciated :)

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Thank you.
and sorry for the multi commenting. it did not seem to post but then I realized it did. every single time ; )

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I did the same with a reply in a comment below, so I understand exactly how it happens, haha :)
Have a great day!

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What a good post, great photos; I also love this technique for harvesting and preserving olives. This week I have learned a lot, with the post by @bigorna1 and with your post. Thank you very much for sharing your good content in this community. Regards @traisto.

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Thank you so much @plantpoweronhive for your support and encouragement!

It is a great technique and not widely known, I love it :)

As this is the perfect time for us Mediterraneans to harvest olives, I guess it's the hot subject this period for @bigorna1 as well :) He shared some great techniques!

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You so grateful to make olive oil in your own 😍 Here in Indonesia, olive oil so expensive 🥺

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Oh yes, extremely grateful dear @anggreklestari! And I wish Indonesia was closer to send you some :)

Thank you so much for stopping by :)

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Fontina, your pictures are beautiful! What a food photographer you are becoming. The olives sound great. oh and that picture of you is adorable!

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Thank you so much Sara for your sweet comment!

What a food photographer you are becoming.

What a compliment! It was so difficult to make some decent photos in the kitchen and I had to move everything to the front door where the light has never disappointed me, haha! So, extra glad for the compliment :)

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(Edited)

You wait at least 3-4 months and then they are ready.

Hahaha..., you have to be very patient. I would have forgotten about these bottles after so long. Just kidding. I think the result is worth the wait, in fact, I'm sure it is because I have every confidence in you!

"Fontina"..., very cute your friend @sjarvie5 when she calls you by your name! I really want to ask you, is Fotini a name taken from so effervescent Greek mythology? Even in Romania, there are many who have names from your mythology, especially girls (I knew Cassandra, Clytemnestra, Aphrodite, Ariadne...), fewer men, I don't know any Achilles or Ulysses. I've heard of an Agamemnon...

It was a joy to read your blog. I love olive trees but I remember hating olives as a child, hahaha. I am, like others who express themselves here, an admirer of your photographs and I think we are a bit similar in the way we photograph, I'll ask you to tell me if that is so. I think we photograph more guided by our heart and don't have much technical knowledge of photography, we let intuition and who knows what images we have seen before choosing the subject and the way we want to show it. Welcome back!

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Oh what a friend I am. calling you Fontina instead of Fontini!

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No, no, no..., without the first "n", just Fotini! It's an unusual name, of course. Please forgive me for making this small correction on behalf of Fotini, but I think she wouldn't have done it and I don't want to let you make a mistake. Thank you!

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Oh my goodness. I even went to her post and looked and still mispelled it so sorry Fotini!!

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Oh, come on Sara, no big deal :)
As @bluemoon says, it is indeed a rather unusual name and to be honest most people (friends included 🥰) that are not Greek mispell it. I don't know why! But I always find it cute!
Thank you @bluemoon for mentioning it, truth is that I am so used to Fontina, Fontini, Fotoni and many more that they look normal to me :)

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Thank you so much @bluemoon!

Actually, my name is just an adjective that means bright, luminous. It comes from "fos" which means light. No great mythical history behind it :)
Agamemnon? Really??? I have only met one at school, not very common. But we as well have many names like that, it's a trend, and less like Nick, John, Mary which will become rare and maybe come back as a new trend in a few decades :)

I don't think I hated olives as a kid, but I definitely didn't like them at all, haha!

I think we are similar in a way, yes. I think we focus more on the story and less on the form, as formalist @fotostef often tells me :)

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Thank you so much @bluemoon!

Actually, my name is just an adjective that means bright, luminous. It comes from "fos" which means light. No great mythical history behind it :)
Agamemnon? Really??? I have only met one at school, not very common. But we as well have many names like that, it's a trend, and less like Nick, John, Mary which will become rare and maybe come back as a new trend in a few decades :)

I don't think I hated olives as a kid, but I definitely didn't like them at all, haha!

I think we are similar in a way, yes. I think we focus more on the story and less on the form, as formalist @fotostef often tells me :)

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I'm afraid of the "formalist" @fotostef's opinion!
How beautiful, it comes from the light! Well, it has something to do with photography...
In Romanian, it is a girl's name "Luminita" which means a smaller light or a child of light. Light is called "lumina".
I hope your friend @sjarvie5 didn't get upset with me because I told her she got your name wrong, I've noticed that before. It's none of my business, of course, but I only did it with the intention of being helpful.

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A place where olives grow, is like heaven on earth. I can't imagine how wonderful that would be.

It's very interesting to see how olives get prepared. Most people here in Canada don't really think about the process. We just think olives grow in a jar haha.

The photos are so lovely and paint a very inspiring picture of olive preservation. Thanks for sharing.

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We just think olives grow in a jar haha.

Hahaha! Glad I managed to shed some light on this misunderstanding :))
And glad you found it interesting!
We are totally surrounded by olive groves and by people harvesting olives this period and it feels as if this is what everyone does and I was wondering if writing about it is boring :))

Olive trees are very generous trees, I think you will love it being in such a place, yes!

Thank you so much for your lovely comment!

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Since I moved I have no Olives to harvest and I miss it a lot. I really energy the work and the wonderful bounty. There is not much better than olive oil from olives you have picked yourself. I like this way of preserving. When I next have some, I will do this. Beautiful photos as well. Much love to you xxxx

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Wow, it is sooo nice to see the colors of olives. and you presented it very nicely with nice photographs thank you I learn new things but we don't have olives here in Norway. regards to both of you 🙏😊

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Those olives! We tried to plant an indoor olives before and it grew so big but it didn't bear fruits. 😂

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I really like your writing about olives and I really want to cultivate them. Doesn't seem to exist in our area

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That is a cute basket! I love your process - agree that it's a pity about the plastic - it is totally different to mine. I use huge buckets and keep my olives in a strong brine (just salt and water) for a couple weeks then wash and repeat. For about 8 months. Only then do I do the olive oil and fresh herbs plus garlic finish. So lovely seeing you!

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I really enjoyed your publication, I love olives. In my country they are used a lot, especially at Christmas time, when preparing delicious recipes.

I didn't know that they should not be eaten straight from the tree because they are bitter hehehe, good thing, so they are not eaten before the canning process. Greetings @traisto .

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