Hello.  I have recently started my first-ever batch of olives.  According to the recipe I am using, I keep the cut/cracked olives soaking in water and change the water every day.  I am nearing the end of my third week and will soon have to soak them in a saltwater solution followed by a vinegar solution.  The thing I have noticed is that the olives are beginning to smell quite strong and that has me a little worried.  Many of the olives are also getting mushy which is kind of a bummer.  I have tried not to bruise them but I think it gets kind of tough since I have to drain them and then put them back in the bucket with water.  I always pour water into the bucket before dumping the olives back in so that they can have a softer landing.

I've also noticed that all of the olives now sink to the bottom of the water whereas they used to float.  I'm just hoping that this is all due to the "bad" stuff/bitterness being extracted from the olives and perhaps oil coming out of the olive has made them heavier than water.

I hope they come out well because I love olives and this has also been a lot of work.  I would hate for all of it to be for naught.

Anyway, if anyone has experience with making olives and could perhaps aleviate my fears, that would be great.   

Thanks.

Hello.  I'm not sure if you have noticed but there appears to be an issue with the login at the top of the page.  I have noticed the issue on multiple computers using different operating systems and browsers.  Just to the right of the top banner and including the Search box, if you try to click on any of the text boxes to login, it just reloads the webpage.  In fact, the entire top area of the page is just set as a hyperlink to http://www.olives101.com/forum/index.php

The way I have been logging in has been to press the Tab key on the keyboard until the blinking cursor finally lands in the username box.  Only then can I type my username, press Tab again and then type my password and hit the Enter key.

Just an FYI since I think some people might be having difficulty as evidenced by a lack of posts over the past couple of weeks.

Thanks!

Hello. I have wanted to make my own olives for many years and have recently purchased a house (10 months ago) with two mature olive trees. And I have found this website so I am twice as happy.

I received some mail a number of months ago from a company telling me that it is once again time to spray my trees to prevent them from fruiting.  All I can think is why would someone want to do something like that?  What a shame.  Anyway, we watched as our trees became loaded with olives last year and saw them go from green to purplish/black.  My guess is that they were not sprayed last year since they have so much fruit on them.  My landscaper actually told me that these were not edible olives as he took a bite of one and made a face.  Haha.  I decided to ask some nurseries and they told me what I suspected; that they are absolutely edible.

So I found a recipe, picked a couple of shopping bags full (barely scratching the surface of what we have available to pick), cut them and now have them soaking in water.  But what I am wondering is: are they safe to eat?  I don't know what the trees were sprayed with in the past but since it's likely been two years or more since they've been sprayed, do I have anything to worry about?

I told my wife that I will be the (happy) tester of my creation and she can see if I get sick.  :p

While I'm at it, what happens with the rest of the olives?  Many have fell but there are still tons of old olives.  Do I need to remove them?  I couldn't possibly hope to reach them all since they are at least 15-20 feet tall each.  Will I have new green olives appear alongside the old black olives?

Thanks for any guidance.