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.
