Guest Post: Olive Season!

As my due date approaches, I'm lining up an arsenal of friends and bloggers to help me out with guest posts.  While TBD has not arrived yet, this post was a bit more time and season sensitive, so I figured I'd get it out now.  My good friend Kapi has a great foodie blog about gluten-free cooking and eating Gluten Free Veg-Heads Unite.  This week she is sharing her secret to inexpensive delicious homemade olives.  Kaps is with-child as well - and due before me nonetheless - so I am one lucky girl to get this post:

Olives. There are few things that I love more. If I had my way, I’d have a whole refrigerator dedicated to them so that whenever I was feeling “snacky,” as my 2 year old says, I could just saddle up and start munching. Lucky for me (and perhaps for you, too?) this lofty goal is within reach!

You might be wondering how it is financially possible to feed a refrigerator-sized olive habit when olives at overpriced luxury food stores that will remain nameless charge $10.99/lb for their olive bar. Well, it just so happens that making your own olives (to the tune of ~$3.50/lb) is fun, easy, and – ACT NOW! – in season.

I’ve been doing it for five-ish years now and if it’s any indication of my dedication to this yearly ritual, I just finished cracking this year’s batch within minutes of my due date for my second child. Priorities… check! Each September/October I order between 10 and 15 pounds of fresh olives from a company called Penna. I crack them, cure them and feast the rest of the year on a spectacular smorgasbord of homemade olives. I can just see my Greek grandmother beaming with pride from heaven. What could be bad? Give it a try:

1. Blather on about the greatness of home-cured olives and order freshies (you are here)
2. T’aint no lye: Curing olives without the nasties (hint: use water!)
3. Brining is the key to olive happiness. Oh, the places we’ll go!

Thanks Kapi!  Now all I need is an olive tree in my backyard to really make the process complete!