Olives and Life

We have a bit of olive curing going on at #1 Rashbag and it has been a learning experience.  We picked olives at a public park, the Tayelet, which overlooks the city and is a 5 minute drive from the house.  (As I walk Jerusalem I am starting to see that there are olive groves all over the city.)

We researched a recipe. First we cut or smashed each olive and then soaked them in water for 4 weeks, to remove some of the bitterness.  Then we mixed up a batch of pickling juice. I had this notion that the salt:water:vinegar ratios had to be exact or the olives would not cure properly. So there I am, measuring ingredients like I am in some pharma lab.  We had the idea of asking Sharona's Dad, Avner, for his advice.  He is an experienced olive man, makes 10 kilo batches at a time. Avner comes over, with hot peppers in hand, and we show him our jar.  He tastes one (I thought you could not touch them for a month) and immediately starts tearing up the hot peppers and throwing huge pieces into the mix. Then he dumps in two handfuls of salt - so much for my careful ratios.

Two batches of olives

I flashed back to 1986 when I was working for a petrophysics (flow of oil through rocks) company in Mountain View.  I had very little exposure to computer technology at that point (I was one of those people that thought I would break the PC if I shut it down the wrong way.)  The engineers at this company had no problem with pulling off the back of the computer, digging around with screwdrivers, installing memory boards and the like. Sort of the same deal here.

We have been eating a few and they are not terrible and no one has gotten sick; admittedly a low bar but you have to start somewhere :)

On another subject, Gabriella had an assignment in English to write a 'diamond poem' - 4 words that end in 'ing'.  For me she chose shopping, mopping, driving and, of course, blogging - that's my life...