October through December is olive season in Tucson and, if you're lucky, you have a big olive tree in your yard bearing plump green fruit with a lovely red blush.
Olives at this stage are perfect for brining in the Sicilian style which entails picking and slicing the fruits and putting them in salt baths for a few months. It is a simple, if time consuming, process, but the resulting olives are a wonderful treat and a great holiday gift for friends and family. Even if it is a bit of work, it's better than having the olives turn black and stain your patio, right?
The process is easy. Start by carefully picking about two gallons of olives, choosing the largest and best looking fruits. Green fruits with a bit of red blush are perfect. Fruits that have gone deep blue to black are over-ripe and will turn to mush in the brine.
Rinse the dust and bird poop off the olives and use a paring knife to put a longitudinal slit in each one. This is time consuming and is best done with good music in the background and a good beer in the foreground.
Make a brine by putting about three gallons of water in a clean 5 gallon bucket and dissolving enough salt in it so a raw egg will float. Keep track of how much salt you add to the measured quantity of water and you won't need to do the egg trick every time you re-brine.
Put the sliced olives in the brine and put the heavy plate on top of them to keep them submerged. Cover the bucket. Gently stir the olives daily.
Discard and renew the brine weekly. At week six, taste the olives to see if they have lost enough bitterness. If so, they are ready to add to a flavored brine. If not, re-brine for another two weeks.
A flavored brine is created with the same ratio of salt to water as the other brines, but you add garlic cloves, chile peppers, rosemary sprigs, bay leaves and whatever else you want to flavor the olives. Put this brine in a storage jar, crock, or whatever you will store the olives in for the long-term. Add the olives and top with a one inch layer of olive oil. It will take a week or two for the flavors to infuse the olives and the strength increases with time. Olives stored like this will last at least one year and probably more.
To use the olives, remove the desired amount from the flavored brine and soak in fresh water for a day or two until they reach a level of saltiness that suits your taste. Rinse and eat.
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