Preserved olives. Photo / Thinkstock
New Zealand has a wonderful sprinkling of exotic olive trees through its back garden. I hardly know a person who doesn't have one in their yard and yet no one seems to know what to do with them! So wait until the olives are big and plump and then fill a basket to turn these bitter inedible fruit into a delectable treat.
Ingredients
• Freshly picked olives
• Salt
• Clean sterilised jars
1. Prick your olives with a sharp knife.
2. Fill jars with pricked olives.
3. Make a brine solution of 100g salt per litre of water.
4. Pour brine over olives and screw on lids. Shake jars twice a day.
5. After one week drain off the brine and top with fresh brine. Do this for at least three weeks. Taste test the olives. If still too bitter change the brine and leave for another week. Once the olives taste how you like them you can just leave them in the brine, topped up with a little olive oil.
‘Mum had lived and died with this secret,’ says writer Mary Garden.