Olives?

[Coatue]

What's the general consensus on olives? Are they good to eat frequently or should they be limited?

[RawZi]

    So, what do you do? Dehydrate them?

[Coatue]

    So, what do you do? Dehydrate them?

No i just buy them in bulk at olive bars in stores or organic olives from Greece in a jar

[TylerDurden]

I eat raw olives occasionally. They don't seem to benefit or harm me in any way. Raw olive-oil, however, gives me diarrhea within half an hour of drinking, though.

[Hannibal]

Raw olive-oil, however, gives me diarrhea within half an hour of drinking, though.

Have you tried a really true raw unfiltered high-quality olive oil?

[TylerDurden]

Have you tried a really true raw unfiltered high-quality olive oil?

Well, the stuff I bought was genuinely raw, without preservatives/chemicals of any kind. No idea re unfiltered, doubt it would have made any difference to my symptoms of diarrhea, though.

[Hannibal]

There is a huge difference between an unfiltered oil and a filtered one. The latter is usually a crap.

[eveheart]

I have more questions about olives:

1. Can they be eaten uncured? Any specifics about green vs ripe?

2. If they must be cured, should I assume that the typical supermarket olives in vacuum-sealed jars were subjected to heat in the canning process? and the olives in cured in barrels in middle eastern grocery stores are not heated?

[Iguana]

I just finished to gather olives two weeks ago, mostly small wild ones. A few of these wild ones had dried on the trees and can be eaten straight away, but otherwise you can’t eat it them immediately as they are awfully bitter and certainly toxic. The way is to store them in a hermetically closed jar, where they can be kept for years. When we want to eat some, we open a jar and put these stored olives on a plate until they become a bit warped and taste fine. It usually takes 2 to 4 days. 

[eveheart]

I just finished to gather olives two weeks ago, mostly small wild ones. A few of these wild ones had dried on the trees and can be eaten straight away, but otherwise you can’t eat it them immediately as they are awfully bitter and certainly toxic. The way is to store them in a hermetically closed jar, where they can be kept for years. When we want to eat some, we open a jar and put these stored olives on a plate until they become a bit warped and taste fine. It usually takes 2 to 4 days. 

Do you pack the olives dry, no liquid of any kind? If I don't want to wait years, how will I know when they are ready?

[Iguana]

Yes dry, just put the olives and close the jar. You don't have to wait years: you can open the jar after a few months, just the time for the olives to mature in the gas they emit. An even more natural way is to let them mature in the open until they become soft and loose their bitterness, then they can be stored in jars as well. 

This video is in French, but the guy (currently vegan again, I think) explains it quite well:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGZcL_JDZA0

[eveheart]

Thanks, Iguana. That video gave me enough visual information to understand exactly what you are talking about. Vivrecru has another video that I watched: http://vivrecru.org/les-breves-le-temps-des-olives. I also enjoyed reading this: http://www.therawgreek.com/olive-power