This should be a great thread! Another great thing is the bountiful supply of olives that you can pick from trees all over the place for free!! I got over 12 1/2 lbs at our local golf course! The men teed off, and took their mulligans and their sweet time.. and I picked olives!! While they hemmed and hawed over the putting green, I putted in, and picked olives while waiting for them. I brined them in bowls, let them chill in the guest room closet for 3 weeks now. Just tasted one today. Deeelish!!

Also, the year round fresh herbs that we can all grow. Need parsley? Go out and clip some. Need rosemary? No problem. Need Thyme? Easy! And Jalepenos, garlic, Cilantro, Limes, Avocados, Tomatoes for the guacamole?? Step out the door.

Need a bay leaf? Over there on the left. Need some lavendar? On the right....

I'm waiting for my Agave to bloom so I can get some delicious Nectar of the Agave! Soon.... Soon!

Oh, and there is Citrus falling off the trees planted by the roads. How sweet is that?

I LOVE California!!

Today took photos of my roses, in full bloom. I'm still collecting wax peppers and eggplants, and have sugar snap peas and snow peas, lettuce, and radishes.
The avocados are almost ready...

Yes, So Ca. is great. Though our past heat wave was bad. And the fires were absolutely horrible. Hard to make up for that disaster.
Though living here, especially near the coast where the climate is mitigated by the sea, so many things can be grown. Even at sea level, I have alpine natives: a 20ft white fir and Jeffrey pine as well as a sugar and pinon pine and other native shrubs. While in another corner I have tropical ginger and plumeria. A large bay tree and herbs. And of course citrus trees. It's getting cool now at night and I don't think I'd be planting tomatoes now. I'm thinking about planting more natives and curious about planting a icecream banana next spring.

Hey, not just Socal! haha. The central inland valleys are great too. Across the street smooth-skinned avocados are plummeting to the floor from some 50 feet in the air. The ones in the lower branches were picked some time ago. For Thanksgiving and Christmas, we make passionfruit juice from our own passi vine. The pomagrantes are still in their prime and we just ate the last of the jujubes. The jelly from Butia palms is another wintertime delicacy. Meyer Lemon is ripening it's juicy lemons and blooming all at the same time. I'm also waiting a couple of weeks to harvest mandarins, cara cara navel oranges, minneola tangelos, Mexican sweet limes, guavas, loquats...mmm. Just thinking of it makes me savor them. And if i can beat the birds, i will be eating Dates too.

Just had to share this pic: Meyer Lemon

{{gwi:64682}}

About golf courses - there are so many toxic chemicals used to maintain the green I'd be really careful about dining from anything scavenged there. Be careful unless it's a known organic, wild (or neglected) source.

My Central CA gardens are once again blooming madly. I have a monster Agave americana that has sent up a huge spike. Roses are in bloom, as are the many Salvias. It's like everything has come out of a summer dormancy.

I've been picking the Meyer and Lisbon Lemons, as well as the Early Girl tomatoes that just won't quit. I've picked Olives, processed some and got a whole cup of oil from squishing the rest.

Now there's colorful Bradford Pear leaves carpeting the back yard. And the hills are getting green thanks to all this wonderful rain.

Dec 2,cannas are in full bloom,parsley looks great,bellpeppers too.
Winter mornings are the same temperature as March/April here in the bay area.

Could one of you olive lovers (desertdance and westelle) please post your recipe for curing olives? There are 3 huge trees near my regular hiking route that are dropping olives all over the sidewalk. I've no idea how to turn them in to the tasty olives I buy each week for $$$.

Thank you so much (in advance)

Cindy

Cindy, I wish I had a tried and tested recipe. This is my first year to cure olives, so all I did was search the web. I googled curing olives. Here are some links for you.

http://greekfood.about.com/od/greekcookingtips/qt/cureolives.htm
http://hedonia.seantimberlake.com/hedonia/2007/04/housecured_oliv.html
http://www.sbolive.com/curing.aspx

There are many ways to cure olives and I chose to slash mine and use the salt brine cure. I am kinda afraid of lye.

I wish I would have separated my olives into black, green, and semi black, but I lumped them together and I have a blend. I plan to add citrus peel, herbs, peppers and garlic when they are cured. Each week I change the brine (1 C non idiozed salt to 1 gal water) I rinse them with water and then give them fresh brine. They are in bowls with plates to weigh them down and keep them in the brine in the guest closet on the floor.

Scum is common to form on the top and will not hurt the olives. I personally hate scum, but it is unavoidable. I did reduce it some by adding a small amount of bleach to my rinse water. Bleach helps to kill bacteria. It is a common way to disinfect water in countries where they have "questionable" water.

I plan to add garlic and herbs to the final sterilized mason jars when I use brine, red wine vinegar, and top with olive oil. I am going to freeze my garlic, citrus rind and herbs first to kill any lurking bacteria.

Good luck with your olive making!

Here is a link that might be useful: Many Recipes for Curing and Using Olives

The awesome climate is about the only thing that keeps me in this nutball state.

Cindy: if you will contact me with your email address thru' GW I will be glad to C&P the database I have on processing Olives. I tried 3 different kinds of salt processing last year and didn't like any of them. I did one of the lye recipes this year and think I like the Olives better.

One thing, you only process green olives. I made oil out of my colored ones.

Another thing I love about California, of course, aside from it's beauty and the ability to go from Surfing the Ocean to Skiing the Slopes in a couple hours to Year Round Golf, is my Jalepeno Peppers.

I just learned from the Chile Pepper forum that they live for up to 40 years! They give and give and give!!

My cured olives will all have a Jalepeno kick!!

Enjoy yours!

What?? The Chile Peppers only live to 40?..darn and I liked their music.

Groan.

OK here it is: I found it, and I am pasting it here! Good luck with those nasty old olives!! hahahaha!!

Unlike most other fruits, olives aren't fit to eat right off the tree. They contain a bitter-tasting and astringent glucoside. Since the glucoside is water soluble, soaking the fruits from four to seven days in water gradually gets rid of the problem. After the bitterness is gone, you soak the olives in brine for three to four days, then in vinegar for a minimum of three days. At this point they're ready to pack into canning jars.
Curing Kalamata Olives
Kalamata olive curing process
From Chris Smith,
Developed by Basil Papahronis,
Pick olives when their color is red to purple and the texture is still firm. Avoid olives on the ground, unless theyÂve just been knocked there for picking ease. Minimize bruising by collecting olives in buckets containing water and not by knocking them to the ground.
 Rinse and clean olives with fresh water. Discard leaves, stems and any partially eaten (pecked by birds) olives. Also discard any prune-appearing olives (usually the result of dehydration) because they will result in a mushy olive after processing.

 Slit the olives lengthwise to the pit at least three times using a sharp knife or razor edge. While slitting, sort the olives into separate containers according to size and color. Process each of the sorted olives separately to produce a better-appearing final product. Processing can thus be tailored (longer or shorter water-soaking days) according to their respective degree of ripeness.
 Cover the slitted olives with tap water and allow them to soak for four to seven days. Change the water each day at least three times (morning, noon and night). The olive bitterness (a water-soluble glucoside) is removed by extraction and a slow process of glucoside diffusion into the water. The actual number of days required is best determined by tasting the olives after the fourth or fifth day. If the taste is still unpalatable, continue the water soak another day or two. Note: The firmer and greener the olive, the longer the soaking time required. Caution: The olives at this stage are susceptible to spoilage. Keep containers covered and clean and regularly change the water.
 When the bitterness is gone, soak the olives to cover in a 10 percent salt solution (1 pound salt in 1 gallon water). The olives will initially float because of the strong salt solution; they should be stirred at least once a day to work the floaters into the solution. As the olives absorb the salt, theyÂll gradually (in three to four days) cease to float. Since the salt acts as a preservative at this concentration, spoilage is not a risk, but proper sanitation practices should be maintained for maximum flavor quality.
 Drain the salt solution and refill the containers with enough water to just cover the olives. If you want, wash them again at this stage by draining off the first water addition to remove any sediment that may have accumulated in the container. Then just cover with water again. Add vinegar (1 pint for each gallon of olives) and stir well. Choice of vinegar is yours. (Papahronis prefers wine vinegar.) Stir once each day and allow three days minimum soak time. They are now ready for packing. The olives can be allowed to stand for up to seven to eight days before packing. If allowed to stand longer, a mold may form on the surface that can affect appearance and flavor, but it is not toxic. If this should occur, just drain and rinse with fresh water to remove the mold and pack into jars immediately.
 Package the olives by spooning them into jars (Papahronis uses 1-quart Mason jars). Work the olives down into the jars by gentle tapping to produce a more compact fill. Add into each jar the following: 1 heaping teaspoon salt, 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon oregano, 1/4 cup fresh wine vinegar, other spices of your choosing, 1/4 cup virgin olive oil, and water to complete filling to the top. (Note: Papahronis doesnÂt use garlic because it overpowers the natural olive flavors.) The vinegar-water mixture used for soaking the olives is drained; not used for the final packaging.
 Seal the jars and shake well to mix all the ingredients.
 Label and date for ease of identification.
 Store in a dark place for two to three weeks. The olives are ready to eat at any time after the salt soak stage, but the flavor improves with age up to three to four months before leveling out.
 Shelf-life of the packaged olives can be anywhere from two to three years. Keeping them longer is not recommended.
 After opening each jar, it may be refrigerated or kept ambient, depending on how long it will take to finish eating the remainder. Refrigerate if longer than two to three weeks.

OK! I gave some jars of my golf course olives to friends. The label says We golfed, We Saw, We Picked, We cured. 2008 Golf course Olives.... blah blah and a Merry Christmas to you!

We got rave notices from our friends. These are really good olives, and you can't buy them!!

Our marinade was 2 parts water, 1 parts red wine vinegar, rosemary, garlic, thyme, lemon peel, hot peppers, 2 TBSP salt. We may kick it up next year.

I may try this in one of my jars; it sounds good.