Capturing the Garden in Preserved Olives

Olives ready for bottling

On Saturday morning we drove out to “Ligspel”, the property of our friends Susan and Michael which is located in Klaas Voogds between Robertson and Ashton.  The property’s setting high up in the valley between the mountains is just breath-taking.

With 30 litres of olives loaded in the bakkie and Michael and Keith in deep conversation, Susan guided me into a kitchen that had the welcome smell of freshly baked cake to share her new culinary exploration with me. Following her to the fridge to taste the new creation, I could not help but notice the freshly baked strawberry and banana cake layers that were waiting to be turned into one of Susan’s magical cakes.

With a busy morning ahead of us we said our good-byes and left for Robertson to find a capacitor for the irrigation pump.

After a morning of traversing the valley looking for irrigation parts and fetching olives, we headed home for an early lunch to leave me with enough time to preserve the olives after lunch.

I decided to go mostly with the flavours available from the garden. With rosemary, bay leaves, lemons, origanum and freshly harvested garlic, the olives seem to be taking on a very Mediterranean flavour. Using the basic brine recipe of 5 litres of water, 300ml of coarse salt and 500ml of red wine vinegar I added my herbs of choice.

With the essence of the garden captured in the bottles of dark delicacies, the olives become original Towerwater treats.

The fresh olives were excellent as usual. I look forward to Ploughman’s platters decked with the homemade pickled onions, sundried tomato pesto, pickled brinjals and fresh olives. This homemade feast will be complemented with Serrano ham from the Happy Hog farm. I had to stop myself from eating the olives faster than I was preserving them, they were that good.

After preserving 6 kilograms of olives I stood back, admired my handy-work and reminded myself that the proof of a good preserved olive is in the tasting, preferably with a fresh ciabatta and ice-cold Sauvignon Blanc, to be enjoyed under the oaks on the lawn.