Blackrock Rd Salted Olives

This year our fabulous manzanilla olives were dark red by late May. We'd picked for oil in early May, and I had left these to ripen especially for our salted olives. Richard, David and I picked the final 40kgs of juicy black and red olives. Richard and I sorted these - yes it took hours.

Above: The dried salted olives soaking in our new oil.

We stored them in layers of salt for several weeks, turning them every few days to let the bitter juices and salt run out. I have perfected this method over the past few years, copying an old Greek recipe I found and shaped by a more recent French method from Province.

This weekend, David and I have washed them, dried them, doused them in our oil and stored them in their jars. They are ready!

Getting ready to put the salted olives into their jars. the farm kitchen is in full production!

Each jar weights 203 gms and each jar holds 200 gms. We then seal this.

No surprises for Christmas this year! The olives look like raisins and taste like olives. The olives are great slightly warmed, and orange or lemon zest added, or just as they are. Feeling pretty chuffed with our Blackrock Rd 2013 pinot noir (5 cases), our olive oil, and now, salted olives.