Olive Season at Kureelpa Park Eleanor Dark’s book Lantana Lane, (1959), was about a small farming community living in Lantana Lane, inland from the Pacific coast, where the pineapple plantations grew, and where the folk were ‘all firmly and happily wedded to the land’. It is said that Lantana Lane is Mill Hill Road at Maleny, but we do not know for sure. However, this description could apply to Kureelpa Falls Road at Kureelpa today. Kureelpa Falls Road is in a small rural hamlet near Mapleton, where a diverse group of people live, coming from many countries including France, Belgium, Latvia, Germany and England. The people are also doing many different things – painting and exhibiting at Kureelpa Fine Art Gallery, growing macadamia nuts at Kumanu, breeding and raising horses, grazing cattle, growing flowers commercially, teaching cooking at On the Ridge and the latest venture, growing olives at Kureelpa Park.  Jenny and Peter Varley purchased their 26 acre property, on Kureelpa Falls Road in 1998, to breed horses and grow olives. They planted 1000 olive trees in April 1999 - Manzanillo and Frantoio (Paragaon). Manzanillo is regarded as one of Spain’s finest varieties with high productivity and high quality fruit, excellent for the table and for good quality olive oil. Frantoio or Paragon Olive is the most noted Tuscan variety with an excellent nutty flavour and is a good producer of both oil and quality fruit, with slightly higher oil content than the Manzanillo. Now it is their first harvest and they are treating it as an experimental one – studying the best processes, techniques and methods, for their purpose. They have given kilos away to neighbours and friends, with the view of collecting together all the various processes that have been used in treating, curing and marinating. At Kureelpa Park they follow the Greek curing method, a completely natural process that uses no chemicals. In fact, the property is very carefully managed without using sprays or chemical fertilizers on the trees. Next year they will press for oil. 
Picked straight from the tree, olives are inedible; they need to be cured in order to remove the bitter flavour, then preserved in oil or brine. Green olives are the youngest and are very hard and very bitter; whereas black olives are fully mature and plump. Select fresh, plump and unbruised olives. One natural curing process involves making a small slit or fork prick into each olive, totally immersing them in a bucket of cold water, changing the water every second day, for 40 days, until the olives are no longer bitter. Alternatively you may soak the olives in salted water, changing daily for 10 – 14 days. After curing, when the olives no longer have a bitter taste, drain and cover them with rock salt. Leave for 2 days, then wash the olives well in cold water and pack them into sterilized jars with pieces of preserved or fresh lemon, some slivers of garlic and some sprigs of thyme. Cover with olive oil or red wine vinegar or half and half. Seal and leave for 2 weeks before eating. These will keep for 6 months. There is a variety of different herbs and aromatics you may use to infuse olives with flavour. Try orange, thyme, rosemary or oregano; garlic, peppercorns, citrus zest and bay leaves; preserved lemon, finely sliced, with thyme and flat leafed parsley; cumin seeds, chopped chilli, garlic and a bay leaf. The olive tree is entwined with the history and development of Mediterranean civilisations. It has been cultivated for over 6000 years, beginning in Palestine and Syria. It was here that the wild tree developed into a sturdy, compact, oil-rich variety which quickly spread westwards to flourish all around the rocky coastlines of the Mediterranean. The olive tree is the oldest cultivated tree in existence and can live for thousands of years. In France, I stood next to a 2000 year old olive tree at the Pont du Gard, near Aix-en-Provence and had my photo taken – such a beautiful old knarled tree. It can survive poor soils, with little water, and it’s hard, thin leaves are adapted to prevent water loss, so it's an extremely hardy and forgiving tree. Olives flourish where there is good drainage and cool winters, with hot dry summers without humidity. Each olive-growing country produces its own style of olive, the variations depending on soil, climate and local tradition. Green olives are young fruit, harvested when they are still rock- hard and unripe. Left on the tree, they slowly ripen to a soft purple, and finally to rich black. They need an annual prune, ideally just after harvesting, which can span from April/May, to September. The olive is high in dietary fibre, potassium and vitamin A; they contain cholesterol reducing mono-unsaturated fat. Elizabeth David in her A book of Mediterranean Food (1950), quoted Lawrence Durrell saying ‘The whole Mediterranean…- all of it seems to rise in the sour, pungent taste of … black olives between the teeth…’ For the green olives to be served with cocktails or as hors d’oeuvre, she suggested to make an incision into each olive, put them in layers in a jar with some pieces of cut garlic and 2 or 3 stalks of thyme and a small piece of chilli pepper; fill up the jars with olive oil; cover and store them for months. Cyprus green olives are cracked and spiced with coriander. You may also treat black olives in the same way. Curing olives Black olives à la Français
Slit each olive with a sharp knife and put into a bucket of water. Change the water every 2 days for 14 days.
Pack the olives into jars and cover with a pickling brine. Seal and leave for at least one month.
Pickling brine is made up of half wine vinegar and half brine. To make the brine solution, fill a bowl with water, continue to add salt to the water until an egg will float. Melita’s Greek olives
Put the olives in a bucket of water, no need to slit them. Leave for 40 days, changing the water every 2 days.
After 40 days, drain the olives and cover with rock salt. Leave for 2 days. Wash the olives. Pack them into clean jars with pieces of lemon, slivers of garlic and little sprigs of thyme or rosemary. Cover with either olive oil or red wine vinegar or half and half. Seal and leave for 2 weeks before eating. Marinating olives Herbed olives
Put 250g each of cured and cracked green and cracked Kalamata olives, 3 sprigs of fresh thyme, 1 tablespoon fresh oregano leaves, 2 bay leaves, 1 teaspoon paprika and 2 teaspoons lemon zest in a bowl and toss. Spoon into a 1 litre sterilized jar and pour in 2 cups, 500ml, of olive oil. Marinate for 1-2 weeks in the fridge. Will keep for up to a month.
Cracking olives with a mallet, or cutting to the stone with a paring knife, allows marinade flavours to penetrate into the olives. Olives marinated with preserved lemon and chillies
Drain 500g of brined olives, cover with cold water and leave for 1 hour. Drain; add ¼ preserved lemon, flesh discarded and cut into thin slivers, 2 halved fresh red chillies, 2 bruised cloves of garlic, and 2 teaspoons dried oregano. Pack into sterilised jars, cover with olive oil, seal and leave for a week to allow the flavours to infuse. They will keep for up to 4 months in the refrigerator.
Note: When refrigerated, the olive oil may solidify, making it opaque in colour. This is a property of the olive oil and will not affect the flavour of the dish. Simply bring the tapenade to room temperature before serving and the olive oil will return to a liquid state.
When the olives are finished, the oil can be used in dressings, to dip bread in, or to drizzle over grilled fish or chicken. Sterilising jars
To sterilise storage jars, preheat the oven to low heat 120°C. Wash jar and lid with hot soapy water or in the dishwasher, rinse well with hot water. Place jar and lid onto a baking tray in the oven for 20 minutes or until dry and you are ready to use it. Do not dry jar with a tea towel. Tapenade – Olive paste Tapenade is named from Tapéna, the Provencal word for capers.
Tapenade is a rich olive paste with a full-flavoured taste that comes with the addition of garlic, anchovies and capers. Originally tapenade was made with a mortar and pestle, you may choose to hand chop the ingredients, if you like a coarse texture, or alternatively use a food processor or kitchen stick blender. You may choose to vary the amount of olive oil to alter the thickness of the tapenade according to the use to which you put it.
Tapenade is delicious spread on toast triangles, foccacia or as a dip with crudités. You may toss it with pasta, or serve it with hard-boiled eggs or on grilled fish, chicken or lamb.
It will keep refrigerated for 2 – 3 weeks with a layer of olive oil on the top. 35g capers in brine, rinsed and squeezed dry
450g black olives pitted
25g anchovies including some oil
1tbsp flat-leaf parsley freshly chopped
4 cloves garlic crushed and chopped
Juice of ½ lemon
100ml olive oil
Freshly ground black pepper
Soak capers for ten minutes and rinse several times to reduce the saltiness. Drain well and chop finely. Coarsely chop the pitted olives and the anchovies. Chop parsley and garlic cloves. Place capers, olives, anchovies, in their oil, parsley, garlic, and lemon juice together in a food processor or a large bowl to whisk with a kitchen wand. Incorporate the olive oil, slowly, blending or whizzing as you go, until you have a paste like consistency. You may not need all the oil. Season to taste with freshly ground black pepper.
Spoon the paste into a sterilised glass jar, cover with a layer of olive oil and refrigerate.
Makes 500g. Tapenade salad
This is a robust salad full of strong salty flavours. Serve with grilled lamb or beef. Juice of 1 lemon
40ml extra virgin olive oil
200g black olives, stoned and diced
4 rashers bacon, finely chopped and sautéed until crisp
1 small red onion, roughly diced
1 clove garlic, finely sliced
6 anchovies, rinsed and cut into thirds
1 red capsicum, roasted, peeled and cut into 1cm dice
Freshly ground black pepper
1 tbsp fresh thyme leaves, chopped
1 tbsp baby capers, rinsed
1 small red chilli, de-seeded and finely chopped
1 cup parsley leaves, finely chopped
Whisk together the lemon juice and olive oil. Thoroughly combine all ingredients and serve. Black olive cream
Light, lemony and with a sweet honey undertone, this delicate cream is delicious with any robust white fish. Serve it with grilled or sautéed snapper or John Dory. It is also good swirled into thick pulse-based soups. Choose a good flavoured fleshy black olive.
90g black olives, stoned
40ml olive oil
150ml thickened cream
zest of ½ lemon
Place the olives in a saucepan with the oil, cream, lemon zest and honey. Bring them to the boil, then lower the heat and simmer for 15 minutes. Remove them from the heat and allow them to cool completely. Purée. Chill. Roasted olives with fennel and orange 1 bulb fennel, finely sliced
1 tsp fennel seeds
2 tbsp olive oil
350g black olives
2 garlic cloves, finely sliced
1 tbsp orange zest, finely grated
60ml orange juice
60ml red wine vinegar
Salt and pepper
Extra virgin olive oil for drizzling Preheat oven to 180C.
Sauté the fennel and fennel seeds in olive oil for 10 minutes. Place in a baking dish with the olives, garlic, orange zest, orange juice and red wine vinegar. Bake for 20 minutes. Season to taste, drizzle with olive oil and serve warm or at room temperature. Bottle and keep in the fridge for up to 2 weeks. Set two croutons on each plate and serve while still warm and bubbling. | | |
