Indrani Perera

poet, publisher & mentor

Tag: pickling olives

  • Olive Picking


    IP - Olive Picking 2

    IP - Olive Picking 2
    IP - Olive Picking 2

    IP - Olive Picking 2

    I'm getting much better at really looking at the trees around me and noticing what they are. Not so long ago, it was all just a wall of green that was a background to wherever I was going. I can now confidently identify wattles (the sap is edible), she oaks (great for basket weaving), japanese maples (lovely shapes for eco-dyeing) and olives tress (need I say more?). I adore olives. They are my all-time favourite snack. So many varieties, so many ways of preserving. And so tasty! We eat a ridiculous amount of shop bought olives each week in this family.  We've all got our favourites.  For me and Miss Seven it's currently sicilian olives marinated in lemon and garlic.  The lovely G scoffs the chilli olives along with Miss Eleven who's also partial to the feta stuffed ones. Of course we can't live without kalamata olives either, they go into my chicken casserole or a tuna nicoise salad.

    I'm so excited that olive season is finally here again and I can have another go at curing olives.  This time, hopefully with more success! There's quite a few places around Melbourne where you can find olive trees growing on nature strips. I went to a wilder place to pick my olives. As I sank deep into the rhythm of picking olives from the tree, thoughts flittered through my mind. I thought with wonder and gratitude of all the people who do this every day so that I can eat olives whenever I want to. I wondered at how long it takes to carefully pick olives from the tree so that they don't bruise. I can hurry but I'll damage my crop. A lesson in slow and steady. My focus narrows and becomes razor sharp. Now it's just the sun on my face, me and the tree. I get really good at singling out the green olives without blemishes. It becomes a game, how many do I still need to pick to fill my jar?

    There's magic to be found in foraging. There's the excitement of discovering trees bearing fruit. A growing awareness of the plants around me. A connection to the season and what is ripe and ready for picking. You can't hurry a tree along, it's gonna be ready when it's ready. What a great teacher of patience and waiting until the time is just right! Invariably there's a lot of tasting before things are ripe but that's all part of the learning too. Who knew that green mulberries warmed by the sun are tasty when eaten right off the tree? My girls know! Discovery, tasting and the joy of harvesting. And all the while we are getting our hands dirty, feet planted firmly on the earth. 

    What are you foraging?

  • Nature’s Abundance


    IP - Feijoa & Lilly Pilly

    It's easy for me to forget where my food comes from. I live in an inner city flat and buy all my fresh fruit and veg at a local market. Intellectually I know that it all grows on trees or in the ground and is harvested by farmers.  Practically I am a world away from harvesting my own food.  Or so I thought. It turns out that growing all around me in the parks of Melbourne is an amazing array of fresh fruit ripe for the picking. How gorgeous are the lilly pillys and feijoa in the above photo?  They were foraged by a friend along with carob from local trees. I had no idea that feijoas and carob grew in Melbourne or that anyone had planted them.

    Seeing the gorgeous colours of the foraged fruit was a lovely reminder of the abundance that surrounds me all the time.  Nature is so generous with her colourful and delicious bounty. She shares with everyone willing to spend some time getting to know the plants that surround them. With consumerism rampant it's so easy to get caught up in the scarcity myth. It's the myth that says there's not enough for everyone. The one that says we need to buy more stuff. The one that tells us happiness can be bought with the latest or greatest thing. It's too easy to be distanced from the natural world of growing things and yet I find that the more time I spend in nature, the happier I am.

    It's funny how you can forget things.  Until I saw the fruit, I'd forgotten my own foraging adventures on nature strips and in parks around my home. In the past I've gathered olives, peppercorns, passionfruit, plums and figs. I'm sure there is so much more to discover. Last year I had a turn at pickling the olives foraged from a tree near my girls' piano teacher's house. I was using the soak and rinse every day method and on about day 11 of 14 I forgot and my olives ending up slimy and off. This year I'm having another shot at curing my olives. I'm going to try the brine and salt methods found here this time. I'll let you know how I go.