We have a winner in the name that vegetable/fruit contest. The winner is...
She was the first person to guess that the picture was OLIVES.
I had never seen fresh olives before and as I mentioned in the last post, I was greatly intrigued by them. Megan and I purchased a few and I tried them when we got home. They tasted awful! They were extremely bitter. I did a little research on the internet and found out that they have to be brined or soaked in water for a couple of weeks to take out the bitterness and then they are brined or salted for several months to preserve them. Who knew it took such preparation to make olives edible? It gives me a whole new appreciation for that 99 cent bottle of olives I can pick up at the grocery store.
Here are a couple of links that talk about the brining and preparation process the olives go through for those who are interested in learning about it.
Thanks for all who sent in possible guesses.
Becka
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on Nov 5th, 2009 at 9:53 pm
How interesting! I don’t think I’ve seen fresh olives before either. I am now noticing the size of the olives in comparison to the wood grain and guess we should have been guessing smaller…
I’ll have to check out the links you posted.
on Nov 5th, 2009 at 11:45 pm
I would never have guessed olives.
Another food that requires a lot of work to make edible is cashews. I first learned about them from a missionary who spoke at a summer camp when I was a kid. A couple of years ago, I looked up the information and found that my memory was accurate. I mentioned it to a friend who is a missionary to Brazil. She sent me a package of cashew fruit candy. It’s an acquired taste. Before I reached the end of the package, I did like it.
on Nov 6th, 2009 at 5:10 pm
I’m sorry I missed the mystery food contest this week! But I definitely would have lost. I would not have known those were olives. How fascinating!
on Nov 7th, 2009 at 1:20 am
And here I was thinking it had to be about the size of a lemon! But on re-reading that was the baby artichokes.
on Nov 8th, 2009 at 5:12 pm
I must admit I am not a culinary guru, but I do live near Randazzo’s and fell in love with the color of these little olives a couple of years ago. I haven’t created anything edible with them, but did use them in a centerpiece and they held their color well for a long time. Kept them around until they finally started turning brown. I enjoy your blog very much, Mrs. Loach!