OT - Anyone grow olives?

[Hobie]

Found two olive trees on Mom's place. One is bearing fruit now. Anyone know about cultivating olives?

Too many projects there, still have cats to remove to move forward with the quail stocking...

[Old Savage]

Very clever OT - olive trees Sorry Hobie know not a thing on this - but I'll bet someone does.

[Cliff]

Might want to try the State's Extension service or similar agency. A few years back Olives became the big thing to grow in Wine country in Calif. As I understand it there are two kinds, eating olives and oil olives and that is about all I know. Good Luck.

[Hobie]

Cliff,

I think you just doubled my knowledge base...

[m.wun]

Not much knowledge here but I do know you have too cure them
in a brine.If you eat them off the tree they are real bitter.There are
many different types and cures are different.Look at Foodnetworks
web site...

[Grizz]

yeah ya can't eat them off the trees, but they make GREAT sling shot ammo !!

[gundownunder]

I've got one tree in my backyard and it's an eating variety. Cultivating is easy, just plant them and they will grow. Fruit grows on two year old wood. Commercial growers prune the tree for easy harvesting, but I just let mine grow for its good looks. I once saw an olive tree that was 250 years old, man that was a big tree. I'm told some of the olive trees growing on the mount of olives were already there when Jesus was there.

Easiest way to cure them for eating is in 10%(by weight) salt solution. I put about 2.5 gallons of olives in brine back in January and some are still a bit on the bitter side although they are almost edible. You can fully brine them in about two months if you destone them first or slash the skin with a razor sharp knife so the brine can get into them, I did half a gallon this way and we ate them back in April/May, marinaded in olive oil, garlic, and basil.

Do a google on olive cultivation or olive pickling and you will find plenty of good info.

[JReed]

yeah ya can't eat them off the trees, but they make GREAT sling shot ammo !!

Yes they sure do. They are quite popular trees in SoCal because they are drought resistant. As kids we used to shoot them at each other with sling shots all the time.

[Ysabel Kid]

About all an olive is worth (slingshot ammo). Yuk!!!

[Rusty]

One interesting factoid that someone shared with me a few years ago about olive trees:


In Israel it is against the law to cut down an olive tree. This comes from the time when the Turks conquered the land. when the Turks were in power they made the people pay a tax on every tree they had on their property. To keep from paying the tax the people cut down all their trees. Thus the law was passed. I have a nativity set hand carved from olive wood that came from Israel. Even though the trees can't be cut down they can be heavily "pruned." The trimmings from the pruning operations are always saved to be used in carvings.

[rhead]

Build a press for the oil and use it in bullet lube. Then you will know the quality of the oil. I like the green pickled ones once in a while but not enough to sacrfice a fig tree for them.