11/05/2025
We’ve been a little quiet on here—life on the land has a way of drawing us inward, especially as the seasons shift. With a little one in our arms, everything asks for more presence. You can’t rush through the days. There’s a deeper rhythm, a kind of quiet observation that comes with it.
This morning was all about olives—something I’ve been wanting to do properly for a while. We only pruned our olive trees last spring, and as a result, most of our olives grew beautifully big this year.
In the past, I’ve made olives that tasted good, but they always turned a bit mushy by the end. Something was missing. We used to process green ones by cracking or slicing them, which was such a long, fiddly task. This time, I wanted something simpler—and maybe even more nutritious.
We harvested around 5 kg of olives and left the rest for the birds and the land.
I made a traditional salamura, a brined olive recipe I remember from Turkish farmers' markets—where the smell of all the different olives would fill the air. It’s a simple method: just whole olives in salt-saturated water, nothing more.
This time I also learned a new trick—adding chickpeas to the jar to support fermentation. I’m curious to see how that affects the flavor and process.
If you’re from the Mediterranean, you’ll know how deeply olives are woven into everyday meals—so much flavor, richness, and tradition in something so simple.
Now they’ll sit and ferment for the next six months, no extra labor, just time—and all those precious oils staying right where they belong.
We’re excited to see (and taste) the results.
