Rightio. Making your own pickled olives is not only fun and quite easy, it's also very satisfying on some sub-conscious level. We've been pickling olives since around the Copper Age (4,000 BC), so it is truly a basic human foodstuff, and one which has stood the test of time. When olives come off the tree, they are pretty inedible (although not poisonous) due to the presence of oleuropein, a glycoside which protects the olive fruit from the unwanted advances of various animals. It's worth trying just the one untreated olive sometime... a memorable experience. You won't be lining up for a second bite, though.

Once they're off the tree, olives are usually pickled or fermented to be eaten whole, or pressed to make olive oil. Let's just leave the making of olive oil for another day, but suffice to say that you squish the olives, thereby removing the oil from the flesh of the fruit. And that you need rather a lot of olives. Pickling and fermenting, on the other hand, is easy to do on a small, domestic scale -  you can get very creative with marinades and stuffings once you've gone through the basic fermentation process, or you can just eat them out of the jar. Yum.

There are many, many ways to go about preparing olives for consumption in their whole form, but all the methods are working off a few common principles. And Nick's made a video covering the basics of how to convert your freshly picked/bought olives from weird green berry things into the food of the gods...

So below is the basic data to do with how to pickle your own olives. Olives pickled in this way should keep indefinitely if stored somewhere out of the light. If at any point after fermenting your olives things seem not quite right, or the container smells evil (unlikely but possible), do what you would do for any food that doesn't smell right: don't eat it. Pour off the brine and stick the offending olives in your compost or worm farm or bokashi or whatever. They will then go back through the system, and the only stop they will be bypassing, really, is your stomach. So no great loss. However it is much more likely that you will eat them all and be very full of olivey goodness year after year.

Pickling olives Milkwood style

You will need:

• Olives (as many as you like)
  
• Water (preferably rain or spring water, if you can)
• Salt (can be coarse grained - whatever you have)
• A big bowl
• a strainer or colander 
• A clean jar with a good lid (of a size that will fit all your olives in)
• A piece of stiff plasticy stuff to hold olives underwater (see video - anything stiff with holes in it can substitute, as long as it won't taint the water)
• one fresh egg 
• Somewhere to store your jar for 6 months
• Patience

Method: 

1. pick, purchase or otherwise procure your olives. Perhaps you have gleaned them, using your Feral Fruit Map as a reference. Try to be as gentle with the olives as you can. They may seem hard, but they will bruise if not handled carefully.
2. wash your olives in a big bowl full of water. Tap water is fine for this part. Give em a good scrubbing by rubbing the olives against each other.
3. dump your olives in a strainer and set them aside
4. measure out how much pickling water you will need. One way to do this is to fill up the jar with water, and then transfer that amount to the bowl.
5. add your salt. As explained in the video, you need a ratio of 1 part salt to 9 parts water, or 10% salt. You can do this with scales, if you like, or you can use the salty egg method - which is much more fun. A fresh egg will float in a 10% salt/water solution. So basically you add your salt, stirring it in well to dissolve, and you check the salt content by gently dropping your egg into the solution periodically. If the egg sinks, more salt is needed. When the egg floats, you shout hooray and watch it float about for a bit. Then you move on to the next step.
6. gently transfer the washed olives to your big clean jar. The jar can be any vessel suitable for food preserving.. ie anything that won't leach nasties into the brine, or rust (remember we're talking salty water here). Fill the jar with olives, and leave about 10% space at the top. Do not fill all the way up.
7. cut your plasticy olive-submerger to size so that it fits snugly over the olives and extends to the sides of the jar. If you think it might float up, put a weight on it (a rock from the beach or river is a good one).
8. satisfied that your olive-submerger is in place, pour in your well-dissolved brine solution (salty water). Fill to the top. The olives should remain submerged, and have some space above them, below the surface. If this is not the case, probably best to pour off some of the water and correct things, then pour it back in.
9. place the lid on your jar tightly, and put it away somewhere safe and preferably dark. Lay plans for how you will eat your olives in 5 months.
10. lastly, mark on your calendar to check your olive jar once a month for 5 months. Each time you check it, take the lid off and have a peek. During the fermentation process the olives may release some gasses, so you want those to be able to get out. Just taking the lid off once a month and checking it out should be fine for this. If you want to speed things up a bit, replace the brine solution each time you check them. The more you change the solution the quicker they will be ready.
    
11. When you think your olives are ready, taste one! If it's still a bit bitter, just put them back into storage for another month or so.

Once your olives are pickled you can really start to go crazy. If they are too salty for your liking, just swap the brine in your jar for fresh water - this will leach out some of the salt in the olives. Make sure you refrigerate them if you are storing them without the brine, otherwise they will go off.

If you like them salty, just go ahead and eat them. If you want to marinate them in whatever oil and spices tickles your fancy, pour off the brine and get into it. I like a mix of water, white wine vinegar and a little salt. If you want to stuff them, I highly recommend getting an olive de-seeder - a nifty little device which is cheap and easy to use.

And that is really the basics of olive pickling. This applies to both black and green olives. Further down the track (when our olives are ready), I'll get into some specific recipes for tapenades, olive breads, marinades and the like, but for the meantime, happy pickling!

By the way; this is the way our family pickles olives and we know there are lots of other methods out there. We'd love to hear from you if you have a secret family method or recipe that you'd like to share?

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Comments (40)

Marg said:

Hi guys, Good recipe that uses little water - something we hadn't found yet! Cheers and thanks for checking out our blog too. ) Marg PS. Love the vid!

October 09, 2007 | url

Andreas said:

Very nice tutorial! Had no idea how to pickle them before. I'm gonna try that right now! I have a indoor growing olive tree here in northern Sweden. :-)

October 14, 2007

Lrong said:

Hi there... found this page while looking for info on olives... was entertained very much by your video... pretty humorous and of course, educational... thanks!

October 18, 2007 | url

evren said:

Thanks for informative video.I will use your receipe right away.Bye from Turkey

October 26, 2007

Richard said:

Hi there, Just wonder how long would pickled olive keep?

October 27, 2007

Nick said:

Hi Richard, They should last years in the brine solution, as long as you keep them sealed tight and out of direct light. If you transfer them to fresh water (or a weaker brine) after they have finished pickling they won't keep for as long and you will have to refrigerate them. As always your nose it the best guide.... if it smells ok it probably is ok. You can tell when they go off because they start to get really squishy rather than the firm olivey goodness you are used to. Good Luck!

November 14, 2007 | url

Liz said:

I just came across your website for pickling olives - towards the end of the article, it states that the pickling methods works for both green and black olives - the black olives don't get mushy? I've got a tree loaded with black olives (previous attempt at brining green olives was unsuccessful!). Our toddler picks up from the ground the fallen black olives and squishes them between his fingers so I'd much rather harvest, pickle and eat them! The weather is unseasonably nice now (we're in Tucson, AZ USA where the weather has been in the 70-80 degrees Fahrenheit) so I'd like to get out there to harvest before we get cold. Any information would be appreciated! Thank you.

November 17, 2007

Nick said:

Hi Liz, The longer you leave the olives on the tree the blacker and the softer they get. If you let them dry on the tree eventually the nasty bitter chemicals breakdown and you can eat them straight off the tree (if they don't fall off first that is). Different varieties of olives get soft at different rates as they darken. Generally the varieties that stay firm after turning dark are the ones we eat as black olives (like Kalamatas). If they get soft quick it's best to try and pickle them green, If your olives are already very soft then you need to pick them very carefully, any bruising will encourage them to go off. Other that that their is no reason why the above technique will not work fine for black olives... in fact they should be ready to eat even earlier. Good luck

November 17, 2007 | url

min s park said:

how to make olive-picle

November 20, 2007

David said:

Is there any way to downloat your olive video? Its quite good... Thanks

November 28, 2007

kirsten said:

Hi David - yes you can download this video - either by clicking thru from the movie-player interface above (via the book icon) - or you can just go here: http://blip.tv/file/408477 - in the sidebar on the right are options for downloading both the flash and quicktime versions - best... k

November 29, 2007

David said:

Thanks for the information quick reply... Here is another query for you: Do you find that food grade plastic holds up well to the pressure that builds up during the month? I find myself letting off the pressure every week to keep the one gallon container from bulging. Also, you say that the more you change the brine solution the quicker they become ready. Do you feel that, in your experience, that changing the brine solution once a week of any benefit or harm, or would it be more in the line of watching water boil (a waste of time) Thanks again for the time, David

December 04, 2007

Nick said:

I've never had a container split or rupture, but the lids often swell, and I suppose if you didn't let the pressure out then they may pop off. I think changing the brine solution weekly is about as frequent as I would want to go, at times we have left them for up to SIX MONTHS without changing the solution and they are fine, although still a little bitter. The real reason I prefer not to change them too often is because the brine can be difficult to dispose of in an environmentally friendly manner. We recycle all our grey water, so we try to limit the amount of salt we dispose of. Besides, we have lots of olives from last year, so theres no rush to pickle them quickly. Nick

December 04, 2007 | url

David J Oberst said:

Again, Thanks for the information quick reply... Kudos on the environmental effort. With your interest in permaculture and in the enrichment of local ecosystems, have you considered using the sun to evaporate the water leaving as residue the salts? it may be a lot of work for a low yeald though...

December 04, 2007

Nick said:

Hi David, Thats a great idea, I'll have to try it next time i change the brine. Not sure if the olives will add anything to the salt but it's worth a try. Nick

December 05, 2007 | url

David said:

I also like to dry salt cure my olives. It uses a tremendous amount of salt. As the salt draws the moisture from the olive the "dry"" salt becomes very moist salt... Hence the need for changing the salt so often. This method of curing often requires an equal ratio, pound for pound, olives to salt. I quickly became tired of buying salt, though not expensive, I don't like having to do it; so, I started rotating the salt. First into the olive box for its high osmotic properties, and then, once it is moist it goes onto a large 4x4 piece of plywood covered with aluminum foil. I spread it out so the sun can work its magic drying and somewhat cleaning the salt. Once dry and clean, I use it for the next salt exchange. I've only cycled salt through twice so far, and it looks to be doing a fine job... Ill let you know when I evaluate the finished product and check its bacterial count.

December 05, 2007

Ronnie said:

One can also cure green olives in just fresh water. However, the water MUST be changed daily (or every other day) until the bitterness is gone (or nearly gone). As you can imagine, this adds up to a lot of water and they'll need to be refrigerated and flavored/marinated (probably with salt unless you plan to eat them right away) once they are leached of the bitterness. I have a water-cured batch that is surprisingly devoid of bitterness and ready to be flavored and stored after only two months. It is pleasantly strange to eat a plain water-cured olive that is neither bitter nor salty!

December 10, 2007

Nick said:

Absolutely right Ronnie, the large amounts of water used in the fresh water method is one of the main reasons we use brine. Also the brine inhibits nasty bacterial growth. This is why you must change the water daily with fresh water cured olives. The fresh water method is fine to use, but make sure you use your nose to check for any 'off' smells before you stuff yourself with those olives.

December 10, 2007 | url

Usman Gul said:

I am living in Lahore (Pakistan) and have a olive tree in my backyard but even after six years my tree is not bearing any fruits. I would like you all to give suggestions to me what to do. Some one say that a lone olive tree could not bear fruits. I must plant two or three trees of same type of tree. Kindly comment.

February 11, 2008

louisa said:

we, like you have moved out of town and planted 450 olive trees. they are now bearing quite a lot of fruit for 2 and a half year olds. i was looking for a pickling recipe and came across your site. thank you for such a fun and informative up-to-date site. will be picking in the next few days. thanks from the cape west coast, south africa

March 12, 2008

Nicko said:

:Usman - I think you are on the right track. Sometimes olives need multiple trees to ensure good pollination. Some variaties are better pollinators than others. In my families grove we plant Sevillano (Queen of Spain) as a pollinator amongst the Manzanillo trees.

March 12, 2008 | url

harry said:

How long do olives last picked off the tree but not put in any solution. Just fresh? harry

March 24, 2008

Nicko said:

Hi Harry, definitely pickle them as fresh possible. They will probably last a week or so if refrigerated a few days at most if left at room temperature. The quality will go down the longer you wait before pickling. Good Luck. Nick

March 24, 2008 | url

Hans Schmidt said:

Hi Nick, Thanks for the info. Have you had any experience in pressing your own oil on a small scale? Hans

March 24, 2008

Nicko said:

Hi Hans, We haven't tried doing any pressing ourselves yet. It's something i'd really like to try. Let me know if you discover an effective small scale solution. Nick

March 24, 2008 | url

Gerald W said:

Hi Nick, My ex-wife's late Granddad used to soak olives in a solution of lye for anywhere from 3 days to a week, depending on how long it took for the lye to soak thru to the pit. Each day of the soaking he would dump out the lye-water and mix up a fresh solution that was a little stronger. After the lye had soaked thru to the pit he would start the brine-soaking, again daily dumping out the old solution and mixing up a stronger soak. Accordingly, the lye was to leach out and/or neutralize the "toxins" and the salt to pickle them. He had used this method for YEARS (at least as far back as my ex-wife could recall) with no ill effects. After he passed away at the age of 82 I given his 5-gallon crock pot and have occasionally done some my self. So now I'm wondering just what real purpose the lye-soak had? Gerald

April 03, 2008

Rolf Oldeman said:

Hi, Good recipe, it's hard to find on the internet! I've pickled twice about a kilo of olives, once picked, once bought. I use a less salty brine (three teaspoons in half a liter of water) and change weekly. Towards the end of the week I see sometimes something mouldy. I'll try the 10% solution next time. In my experience, black olives pickle much faster (4 weeks) than green olives (8 weeks). They still have this deliciously bitter artisan taste, unlike anything you can buy... I use a very simple but effective marinade once they're pickled: I add fresh chopped parsley, some olive oil and half a chunk of raw garlic (which just gives off its aroma, it's not actually eaten. A tiny little bit of dried peperoncino intensifies the flavour. Any other favorite marinades?

April 09, 2008

kris said:

Hi, I tried pickling black olives but they lost their colour. any idea why?

April 23, 2008

nofal godil said:

yeh good recipe i loveto plant in karachi pakistan .hey giveme detail of plantation in karachi pakistan............religion islam quran also says olive is for health best food .....pls giveme detail

May 11, 2008 | url

nabeel rashid godil karachi pakistan said:

love to olive we want little cheap in Pakistan . i really want to grove plant in karachi Pakistan but no information i have if some bodywant to giveplant inforamation pls 092 333 3174046 . please i want to grove here in Pakistan with any partner from any part of the world

May 11, 2008

Lauren said:

Hi there, We recently moved and found an bulging olive tree in our backyard. We looked for a recipe and started one....soaking our black (I think kalamata olives) in water for a month, changing the water everyday. I have since lost the recipe (long story) and now have found your wonderful page. Have we done the wrong thing?? I am making up a brine solution, I am soaking the olives in a large stone pot, can I seal the pot with heavy glad wrap and a towel?? Not sure where to go from here, don't want them to go to waste. What do you think?? Lauren

May 27, 2008

James Muir said:

Dear Kirsten and Nick, I bought an olive tree just for fun a couple of years ago much to the amusement of my wife and friends here in the England. Nothing last year but it looks likely that I'll get a crop this year so I needed your very useful advice and information of pickling etc. Olives in southern England? One effect of global warming I suppose. Best wishes, James

June 15, 2008

Nicko said:

Hey Lauren, If the olives have'nt gone all squishy you should be still ok. I have heard that it is possible to cure olives in freash water, but you have to change the water extremely regularly (a big waste of water) and even then you risk losing them to bacteria. Take a look ate the texture of them, slice a couple up with a knife, if they are still firm you could transfer them to brine and continue on from there. Good luck Nick PS: Kris... If the olives were not black all the way to the core then they often revery to green after a bit of pickling.... most types of olives do not develop the black colour all the way to the core until they are very ripe.

June 27, 2008 | url

pauline said:

hi My friends still have olive son their trees ( we are in NZ) but said hey were pass their best are they still OK to use for dry slating?

July 20, 2008 | url

David said:

Please, if you have time, Let me know what I am doing wrong... I tried to "Pickle olives Milkwood style," and in fresh water as you stated above, but the salt cure ferminted, and the fresh water ones went bad... I love olives, and would love to be able cure them without lye.

September 18, 2008

Jeremy said:

Hi, I see a few recipes that suggest it's beneficial to bruise cut or pierce the olives before they're cured in brine. However with the quantity of olives that I have, this will be impossible. And from what you've said this is not a desirable thing to do. Can someone please clarify the reasoning behind bruising, piercing or cutting the olive prior to curing and also perhaps why you shouldn't? Thanks Jeremy Great video! Thanks.

April 14, 2009

rick said:

great tutorial i have tried many ways of doing this and wasted some great olives .i have one jumbo kalamata olive tree that i use do i need to cut the olive down the side before pickeling this sort of olive ?or can i just pickle it your way ? and can i use a bucket with a lid ? thanks again nick

June 15, 2009

Barrie said:

At last! an easy way to pickle Olives....thankyou so much. I generally waste them as I never have the time to do what all the other recipes suggest. I live in Portugal, mine will be picked and pickled this weekend. Cheers

October 30, 2009

Carla said:

Hi! Three weeks into pickling some olives off my tree I found mould floating on the top of the solution in the jar. Is this normal or should I change the brine? I started with a 10% brine solution. Thanks.

November 07, 2009

Nicko said:

They are probably fine, just pour off the mould and replace the brine

November 08, 2009

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