The little birds...

If you watch little birds you will see they are busy and happy! Using whatever they can find they create the most gorgeous little nest.
I would be the little bird with some glittery thread in her nest!
We can be like this. Happily working away with the things that are available to us to create a beautiful and happy home.
All the while with a little song in our heart.

Banner by Free Pretty Things for You.

Sunday 14 May 2017

Pantries and Preparedness. Using the resources that you have.


This week we are talking about resources that we might have. And many of us have olives!  
Rachel is a good example to us all! She had access to free olives so she set about learning what to do to preserve them.  It could be a daunting task! But not for Rachel, she saw it as an opportunity to increase her pantry! 
Many times we have a resource and don't even recognise what an asset it is!  Think of the possibilities, for your pantry, for gifts, for sale and for barter!  What if you are sitting on a gold mine and wasting it?  

Several ladies already mentioned they also have olives and would love to learn what to do with them so over to Rachel and we will learn along with her....


It doesn't matter how busy we are .... If there's a crop of something, we just have to make a way to get it into our pantry! This time, it is olives!!!!!









































My parents have four olive trees, and they had surplus olives, kindly picked and ready for me to take! (It is usually safe to pick the green olives once a few olives on the tree are ripening - into a darker colour!) I was given the larger variety of olives that are easy to work with. In a box, they looked like this ....









































I set up a work bench at a comfortable height. It had to be something that could stand a bit of a battering! The idea, to avoid using harsh caustic soda, is to prick, cut or bruise the olives to let salt draw out the bitterness and preserve the olives. (Pricking can be done with a fork; to cut, make three slits around each olive with a knife.) I used Mum's grand design of olive-bruising hammer and wooden kitchen board. Ha ha!! Actually, these olives squash easily, and, as Mum nicely said, it makes it easier to cut the olives away from the seed when they're ready for eating! The hammer is a full can of baked beans!! I used a cardboard box to prevent losing olives from the work station. A cloth lining served to collect each batch of bruised olives in one go. (This is also a good time to discard olives that have bad spots on them.)










































The bruised olives then need to go into salt water, made at a strength of half a cup of sea salt to ten cups (2.5 Litres) water. I warmed the water first, to dissolve the salt. The olives need to be fully submerged under the salty water, so I used a heavy plate to weigh down the floating olives!!






















Green olives need to cure like this for about twelve days (ripe ones ten, although ripe ones are often pressed for oil). Each day, the salty water has to be drained away, and replaced with new salty water of the same strength. I was working with a twenty litre bucket and a nine litre bucket. I had to begin with 12.5 litres of water, reducing to 8.5 litres in just a few days. One could use jars instead of buckets. I am told that shrivelled olives can absorb the salt water and increase in volume (& overflow jars!!).

At the end of twelve days, when the salty water is drained away, the olives are then stored in a double strength salt solution. There should be little bitterness left at this stage. The drained water should be measured to give the quantity required for the final water measurement. Then, the water needs to be brought to the boil, and sea salt dissolved at the strength of one cup of salt to ten cups (2.5 Litres) water.

At last! .... Then comes the fun job of scooping the curing olives into jars! They must keep curing for at least two months before being properly ready to eat!



Again, the olives must be submerged in the double-strength salt solution. Using a kitchen tool, reach down inside the jars to remove air bubbles, and then cover the olives with up to one centimetre of olive oil (I used rice bran oil .... because that was what I had!) to keep the air out. Secure the lids.



Count your blessings! One nine litre bucket of olives gives five large jars of olives. I ended up with fifteen jars on our kitchen table!



When ready to prepare the olives for eating, drain the salt solution away, and replace with fresh water. Stand for 24 hours, then use as you like! There are recipes for adding wonderful flavours like garlic, rosemary and thyme!



Then, be on the watch! Just as I completed my olives, there was another bucket worth of olives awaiting! This time, the process seems much easier, even though the olives are a smaller variety!


Thank you so much Rachel! What a good job you did!  I agree that the first time is going to be the most difficult and after a few times it will all just seem easy! 

Rachel and I have had a few discussions on things to do with olives.  Olive bread, focaccia, olives, cheese and crusty bread,  greek salads, pizza.... 

Take a look at Jane's Olive focaccia.... beautiful! 
















Do you have a resource that you could turn into an asset?  At the farm Mum has a Bay Leaf tree, Chloe has fig trees.  These are big assets!  Over the years many of mine have been neighbours trees that I have been able to harvest.  Years ago I used to get lobsters (even though I don't eat them) and used them for barter.  My friend has a huge lemon tree, that's an asset!   For many years I picked apples from a road side tree every autumn. That tree was amazing!  Sometimes there are things you just don't know what to do with!  The first time I had Quinces I had no idea!  But I soon learned and it lead to a life of loving them!  Something you might not even like is possibly still something you can sell, gift or trade with.   Roseanne saw ripe apples in a car park and asked if she could pick them. Hundreds of people saw that tree everyday and no one picked them! So they were heres! 


What do you have access to that could be used to increase your pantry, gift cupboard, piggy bank?
If you have something but need ideas of HOW to use it ask away as you can rely on the ladies here to help out! 
How did you increase your pantry or preparedness last week?  Working on it weekly makes a big difference!  Take every opportunity! 
Have a very good week! 






39 comments:

  1. Dear Annabel and Rachel, thank you for a great post , I don't eat olives but it was a very interesting post and it got me thinking of what resources I have access to . I don't have a vegetable garden but my parents do and I get an endless supply of shallots( spring onions) and I sometimes get lemons from both my parents and my grans trees as well as mandarins from grans trees and sometimes limes from gran too. I recently received a home grown pineapple from my parents garden.i also have lots of bromeliads in my garden at my place , there are currently many baby plants which could be used to barter with. I didn't think about it before but I have access to a lot of great resources. Thanks again for a great post Rachel and Annabel. Love Barb W.

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    1. Barb you have all those wonderful card cut outs that you make. Surely these could be used to barter with other card makers for something you could use but don't have. Thank you for the reminder re the brom pups. I saw one of my broms at a nursery, yes it was an advanced size, selling for $65. That means the smaller established pups have to be worth around the $20 and the bare rooted around $10.

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    2. Annabel and Rachel what a great post. Olive curing is something I have always wondered about. I am now in the know. All I have to do is get me some fresh picked olives. I have one little tree in a pot. I don't know if they need another tree in order to produce olives. One day I may have some olives of my own.

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    3. Dear Barb! A homegrown pineapple from your parents!!!!! -- when I tasted one that my Dad grew like this, it was extra delicious! Did you keep the top to grow one for yourself?!! Is this something you could do more of? I love the idea!! (We once travelled up to Yeppoon to work in some forests there, and it amazed me that pine forests were being planted on reclaimed pineapple farmland. Even after ploughing, in the new plantation I could see .... pine tree, pine tree, pineapple!!)
      Regards,
      Rachel

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    4. Dear Jane!
      I see some interesting trees on my little travels! Does Bluey like olives? I wouldn't be surprised if you could find some olives to practise on, and you'd be good at bruising/crushing them!! You might surprise us with something other than olives, though!
      I love to hear the stories of people picking roadside apples and grapes .... I've seen lilly pillies and hawthorn berries (though the seeds are toxic) .... and I think foraging is wonderful!!
      Regards,
      Rachel

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  2. Hello Annabel,
    That looks very satisfying Rachael to cure your own olives - as I was reading I was thinking it looks like a lot of work, but as you say the next lot is easier and I guess it just becomes second hand after a while. Will be interested to hear how they are for eating, looking forward to that. Thanks for the tutorial.

    Annabel, I have found two wild apple trees on the way to work, and if there are spares, I stop and get some for my hens and for the rescue possums. I use the apple corer on three or four for the hens, tie them through the hole with string and hang them - they love pecking at them, it looks like totem tennis when they are all there cos it swings over to this one who has a peck, then back to the other one on the other side, it's quite amusing.

    My gorgeous man has rung from work, he has some native iris plants that a customer has asked him to dig out and remove and instead of composting or tipping them - he was planning as he was digging where we would plant them. We have a huge specimen gum tree in the middle of about ½ acre of grass and he has suggested we plant them in a ring around the tree - will look great and all for free - in fact he is being paid to remove them as part of his garden makeover.

    Hope you have a lovely week. I'm off to the hairdresser - oh bliss.

    Fi xx

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    1. Ha ha, Fiona!! Look forward no longer -- we have been eating olives that my parents cured a good couple of years ago, and they are wonderful to eat! Actually, I thought I liked olives before this, but the same bought olives don't interest me anymore! Ha ha!! These home cured olives are totally different to anything I have tasted before! (Of course, I am willing to try free samples if someone would hope to convince me otherwise! Ha ha!!) My husband loves grilled toast, with Australian grown garlic, olives, pepper, tomato and cheese. With these olives, I now love them, too!! There's a goodness and nourishment about them! By the way, the olives last at least a year. They do not last forever, though! I will also be testing an easier method for removing the pits after curing. This is to simply use the flat blade of a knife to push down on them, as you do garlic cloves. Apparently, the pit just pushes out from the olive!

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    2. I'm not surprised that the home grown ones taste better - don't most things that are home grown? I never knew they lasted so long either.

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    3. Fiona,
      Do you keep the rescues at your house? I think possums are the cutest things with their pink noses! You do such wonderful things!
      XOXO
      Vicky

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    4. Dear Fiona, The iris plants will be beautiful! Wow! All for free!
      I love what you said about the apples! This is a great point! Some things are fantastic for our animals as well! Our birds all love apple cores! This is an idea in itself, things that are free and a resource to feed the pets and farm animals. I am always bring ing home things for the chickens and birds including giant thistles!
      In years to come your irises will multiply and you can keep planting! Lovely! With lots of love, Annabel.xxx

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  3. Recently I needed some lemons as my tree wasn't ready. A couple of kids in town were saving up for a playstation and so they were selling their lemons for 50c or 3 for a $1. Much cheaper than the supermarket or green grocer. And I knew they were organic. I have make and given biscuits or jams or chutney away as presents or used them to barter for things I need. Hoping to get a couple of olive trees and a miniature bay tree soon for my garden.
    So this blog is quite timely.
    Love to you all.
    Janine

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    1. Dear Janine,
      Your story about the young ones selling lemons sounds like the kind of thing my Dad did in his younger days! He used to sell buckets of huge mulberries to various households for pocket money! Supplying your own baking, jams and chutneys for gifts and bartering is something very satisfying, I would think! Stories of bartering always intrigue me!! Well done!!
      I wonder if olive leaves could be used like bay leaves!!!! Enjoy your trees!!
      Regards,
      Rachel

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  4. Thank you so much Annabel and Rachel for the post. Just a few days ago one of the wives of a Resident I look after was asking me if I could use some lemons and mandarins. Of course I said yes and so we are eating the mandarins this week and I am thinking of how to use up or preserve the lemons. I am thinking i will juice some and also grate the rind to freeze and the other idea was to try a new recipe (lemon chicken maybe?)

    I really enjoyed eating the apples off our tree this year and I noticed we have three pears on the newer pear tree in the garden so I am happy to say I will be eating them soon along with the mandarins growing but not yet ripe on my own very little tree.

    Other assets that I have is many craft items that people offered me and I accepted. I use these to make Xmas and birthday gifts. I have finished one project which I not only enjoyed knitting with gifted wool but it also became a lovely gift for a family member

    I am also getting into the habit of freezing gifted food. For example my dear daughter made me chocolate muffins with little chocolate Easter Eggs on them. We didn't eat them all so I froze the leftovers. This gave us some much appreciated free treats over several weeks. I could pull one out of the freezer at a time when I was on a lean week and give the girls something nice. Since they were eaten sparingly they were much appreciated.

    Hoping my fruit trees will grow and then I will be able to be the giver of fruits and vegetables to others.

    God Bless and have a great week

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    1. Dear Mel,
      There is nothing quite like home grown produce, is there, and you are in the right climate for wonderful apples and pears!! Then, I find that even the little bits here and there add up! I have little pears bottled from two seasons ago, and have added mulberries, lemon preserves and, of course, olives! These storehouses of flavour and nutrition really make the meal or baking worthwhile, I think. May your constancy of purpose lead you to fruitfulness!!
      Regards,
      Rachel

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  5. Excellent work, Rachel! In my hometown in Croatia olives grow everywhere in public spaces, and there are a couple of art galleries that have an ancient stone olive press on display. During the war, we all went olive picking and these presses were, er,pressed into service to make olive oil from them. Still the best olive oil I tasted! Speaking of assets, I always went picking with my older sister and her best friend who was a wheelchair user, which meant we could pick loads before we had to go back as the wheelchair made easy work of transporting them back...

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    1. Thank you Allegra! This is wonderful information that you are providing -- from your own experience!! I love the story about the wheelchair! I am now noticing quite a few olive trees in our travels!
      Thanks again,
      Rachel

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  6. What a wonderful and thought-provoking post. Thank you Rachel and Annabel. Rachel, you are a woman of my heart! I LOVE olives and it doesn't matter if we are tight with the groceries, I always have a good jar of olives in the cupboard. So I can just imagine the taste of your olives, they would be divine. Thank you for sharing the process with us, it was so interesting. Annabel, thank you for making me think. Initially I would think, no I don't have many resources, but then I think of the wild mango trees nearby, when DH catches fish, and soon to grow herbs...It really is thinking outside the square! Something to happily ponder about. I am sorry for my lack of writing on here. I have been following (it is always a real joy of my week to read your blog, thanks Annabel). However, with selling the unit (cleaning and sorting ready for inspections) and then starting to pack, I have been feel a bit tired! So haven't had a lot to offer. Hopefully, once we are settled in the house, I can offer a lot more. Lots of love, Bridge

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    1. Ha ha, Bridge! They say not to give away too many home-cured olives lest one end up with more friends than olives!! Maybe we could trade wild mangoes for olives!!
      Regards,
      Rachel

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    2. Dear Bridge, You have wild Mangoes! Oh m goodness that IS a huge asset! And the fish! When you are all settled into your new place and have a herb garden it will be beautiful! So excited for you and I totally understand you must be so busy. I am thinking of those Mangoes... are wild ones the same as commercial ones? How many can you get? There are so many things you can do with them! And so healthy too! I am not even sure the season but Im guessing summer....
      I hope your week is going well! With lots of love, Annabel.xxx

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  7. We have a number of olive trees here that my husband has planted over the years but I have never seen any olives on them at all. I have no idea why. Perhaps I should do some research about what they need to grow well. A great post once again.

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    1. Dear Nanna Chel,
      One thing my parents have learnt is that the olives tend to crop in years when there is winter rain. It would be interesting to hear what you learn in your research! Thank you!
      Regards,
      Rachel

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  8. Dear Annabel and Rachel,
    Thank you for the very informative tutorial on how olives are cured. I love olives and always have at least one large jar in the pantry, but to be able to have an olive tree or access to fresh raw olives is extremely doubtful due to our climate here. Rachel, I also greatly enjoy and admire your beautiful photography of the process ! One thing I do with olives is to bake them in a bit of olive oil with rosemary, thyme and garlic and then chill them. Heaven!I also have a chicken recipe called Chicken Marbella that uses ripe olives and apricots. Divine.

    Over the years I've learned a lot about resources that are in my own
    yard. Hydrangeas, that can be dried and used for gifted or sold, roses that can be dried for decoration or left fresh and the petals "candied" with egg white and sugar to decorate a cake and rose petal jam. Prickly pear cactus whose fruit can be made into juice, used in salads, or made into jam and the paddles, if gathered when young without the stickers can be sliced up can cooked as a vegetable. Even the lowly dandelion have edible leaves for salads, roots to be used medicinally, and the heads can be made into salves and dandelion jam or "honey". Violets can also be "candied" for cake decorations and made into a jam and they can be pressed and used on cards. One of my friends makes jam out of the wild flower queen Anne's lace and sells it.

    There are "volunteer" mulberry tree and wild grapes growing nearby, as well as blackberries and raspberries which I try to get before the birds eat them all (lol). Jams, pies, and fruit for breakfast
    Years ago I was gifted with an aloe plant and now I let them reproduce and re-pot them for gifts. There are also black walnuts seem to grow everywhere. I've never developed a taste for them but they could be gathered. It's fun to watch the squirrels trying to crack the outer shells open to get to the meat. Wishing everyone a beautiful day. Blessings, Cookie

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    1. Dear Cookie, You have some wonderful resources. The violets are a favourite of mine. Sugared violets would be just exquisite.
      Your friends Queen Annes Lace jam, that is so interesting, I wonder what it tastes like? I only learned that was bible the other day.
      Thanks also for the olive recipe ideas as we are gathering those!
      The Aloe plants are a good gift! And a very useful thing to have. Part of the medical pantry also!
      Thanks so much Cookie! With lots of love Annabel.xxx

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  9. Great topic! And thank you Rachel for sharing your tutorial! I had no idea you could cure them without caustic soda! That always scared me. Our neighbor had a tree and offered some to us but I was too nervous to take advantage. Now you have me thinking!!! :)

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    1. Dear Jes, I felt the same about caustic soda... totally off putting! We have olives growing wild i.e. along the railway lines and road sides here. Now I will be picking them! With much love Annabel.xxx

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  10. That was a great read! Very interesting and informative. I love olives, but where I live there aren't any being grown.

    I got a great deal on chicken this week (chicken quarters for $.59 cents/lb). I have 20 pounds that I'm getting ready to pressure cook today and then I will can it tomorrow. Excited to be building up my pantry!

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    1. Dear Jenn,
      Good pantry building and taking advantage of a fabulous price! That is the way to do it! We are just in chicken soup season... that is what I need to make actually! With love Annabel.xxx

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  11. Annabel and Rachel, we don't have access to olives other than purchasing them already preserved from the store. I will be keeping an eye out for places that I might be able to purchase them fresh and try this method. My husband loves olives and while I have purchased the #10 size cans of olives at the store and re-canned them into smaller portions I have never tried a method like you've shared with fresh olives. Something else to add to my to-do list!! Thank you!

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    1. Dear Patsy, I know you are very good on using your resources though!
      Re canning into smaller portions is a good idea when buying in bulk sizes!
      I wonder if olives grow more in some parts of the US? I will look into that... my guess would be drier places? I hope your week is going well! With love Annabel.xxx

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    2. Thank you, Patsy! I love how life comes down to simple, practical principles!
      Regards,
      Rachel

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  12. Dear Rachel and Annabel, Thank you so much for a great post. I really find Rachel's instructions interesting. I will have to start thinking about my assets. I am sure there are more things than I am currently aware of.

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    1. Dear Cristy, I bet you will start spotting things you could use and turn to your advantage! Good luck! With love Annabel.xxx

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  13. What a neat post! Rachel, the pictures you took of the process are so cool. It takes a lot of courage to take on a project that big having never done it before. And thank you Annabel for the nice response to my comment.

    I think as far as our resources... the most important one is "resourcefulness". Being able to see a need, look around at what you have, and figure out how to make it work. This is a trait I am trying to cultivate in my children so that their first inclination won't be to run out and buy something to solve their dilemma. It is like a game at our house, but of course the flip side of that is, sometimes you do have to buy something, then I have the feeling that I lost, haha.

    Another of our resources is dandelions (and little people who can bend over and pick them!) In the spring when they are blooming like crazy here, we pick tons of them and make jelly and syrup. Dandelion jelly is a neat gift to give, because most people have never had it, so it is a novelty. And it tastes like honey, so they aren't afraid it will taste "weird"
    Right now I am also taking advantage of all of the plastic grocery sacks that come into my house to make outdoor rugs and seat cushions. I needed outdoor rugs, and had a plethora of grocery sacks, and while doing a little pinteresting, decided to figure out a simple crochet stitch and voila! new outdoor rugs!
    I guess we have a few "unconventional" resources at our house.

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    1. Dear Sarah, I would really like to see your outdoor rugs!
      Dandelions! Ok, there is a pantry group on Facebook called pantry ladies. Roseanne posted so many dandelion recipes. Also she is posting them on A Working Pantry Classroom fb page. I will post a link on the Bluebirds fb page if you would like any new ideas fro dandelions... there are so many! It is great you are using your resource and also teaching your children to be resourceful.
      Many thanks! With love Annabel.xxx

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  14. Thank you for the olive recipe, I did try once around 20 years ago but I think the olives I used were too ripe, and we didn't like the finished product. I had packed them all into jars filled with extra virgin olive oil as the recipe asked for so it was an expensive exercise for not a good outcome. Now I know that they can be kept in brine you have me thinking I should try again. And Annabel you've given me a push to deal with the hundred or so chillies I need to make into sauce and pickled chillies. Thanks again.

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    1. Dear Amanda, Chillies! Sauce and pickled chillies sound excellent. You can also dry them and for chilly lovers they would be lovely gifts too.
      Thanks so much for commenting! With love Annabel.xxx

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  15. Annabel and Rachel,
    I absolutely love this! We do not have olives here and have to buy them in jars, but this information is just fabulous! I am always on the look out for new resources. Everyone has seen most of mine so I won't leave a long comment, but I think it is always exciting to find a new way to save.
    XOXO
    Vicky

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    1. Thanks Vicky! Rachel's photos made this so lovely! You are very good at using what you have. Turkey right now too! xxx

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  16. Thank you, everyone, for sharing a little of the olive escapade with me!! It has been, as Fiona remarked, a very satisfying experience, and I hope to enjoy future satisfaction of seeing some of the resourceful successes that you all get up to!! Isn't this fun!!!!
    With warm regards,
    Rachel Holt
    P.S. Do you have any curly questions, Annabel?!!!!! I can hardly wait to see your olives!
    Mmmmm, they could sit in your new bathtub! Ha ha!!

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I really appreciate your comments thank you! The aim of my blog is the be a place of encouragement and happiness. Very rarely is anyone rude. Actually only twice so far! If you post a rude or aggressive comment I will read it but not publish it, thanks for understanding.xxx

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