Ripe purplish colored olives are less bitter and pungent than green olives. Green olives are also firmer than ripe olives. Ripe olives have a shorter shelf life than underripe varieties. Your olives may ripen at different times depending on the variety, temperature, amount of sunlight, and irrigation. Overripe olives are mushy and shriveled. Discard any olives that appear overripe.
You can also collect olives that fall to the ground under the tree.
Don’t whack the branches too hard or you’ll break them. You should only use this method in the late summer or early fall when the vast majority of olives are ripe.
Once you’re done, set the olives aside to let them dry.
The pit is one of the main sources for the olive’s bitterness. Keep in mind that pitting your olives is optional. It will just take longer to cure them if you do not remove the pits. You can’t grow an olive bush or tree from olive pits, so it’s best to discard them once you’re done.
Using the kitchen knife method may crush your olives, which isn’t as visually appealing as using a pitter.
The container must be airtight for the curing process to work correctly.
This solution will act as the brine for your olives and help remove the bitter taste. The component that makes olives bitter is called oleuropein. The salt and water brine will help remove the chemical, thus making the olives less bitter and more edible.
If you don’t have enough brine to cover all of the olives, make more. You don’t have to fill the jar all the way to the top, just high enough to cover the olives.
Make sure the lid is on tight and that the container is airtight.
Repeat the brining process until the olives are as bitter as you want them to be. This process may take 3 to 5 weeks.
