The Olive Tree
Yes, Virginia Ms. Fortune Cookie - Chatty DOES have her own olive-producing tree in the front yard!
It is HUGE, and has ivy growing all the way up the trunk - which is rare in Arizona:
Last year, our wonderful neighbor taught Chatty how to make oil-cured olives. This year, he will teach her how to do the brine curing of olives while they are still green. Chatty is hoping this will start in two or three weeks. The green olives will have to be pitted, then soaked in salt water that has to be changed every day or so for about a month. Then, you cook some vegetables (carrots, celery, onion) and LOTS of garlic and pour the hot liquid over the olives in sterilized jars. At least, the recipe is something like that - Chatty will have more details later. Of course, she will also do several batches of the oil-cured black (ripe) olives as well – because they are delicious!
Here are a few olives in the midst of ripening – aren’t they beautiful?
Also, her neighbor has planted two little plots of Italian cucumbers (he swears Chatty has not lived until she tastes real Italian cucumbers – he brought the seeds from Italy years ago…), and an additional four little plots of zucchini on one side of the wall in her small front garden:
Then, when other plants have grown large enough in HIS yard, he will transplant some to the other side of her little front wall – chard, lettuces and so forth.
Chatty also plans to buy some tomato plants to transplant for The Wiz (because The Wiz is a tomato hound!), but our neighbor says we have to wait until monsoon season is past, and it isn’t so humid – so that won’t happen for a few weeks.
Chatty has no idea how this little gardening experiment will turn out – because although she can cook any vegetable known to man, she has a black thumb when it comes to growing her own. But, according to her neighbor, September is the time to do this in Arizona, so that she will have fresh vegetables into the winter. And her neighbor has a back garden FULL of beautiful vegetables, so he obviously knows his stuff!
Please cross your fingers, because with her nice (and ever vigilant) neighbor standing by - Chatty has hopes!
It is HUGE, and has ivy growing all the way up the trunk - which is rare in Arizona:
Last year, our wonderful neighbor taught Chatty how to make oil-cured olives. This year, he will teach her how to do the brine curing of olives while they are still green. Chatty is hoping this will start in two or three weeks. The green olives will have to be pitted, then soaked in salt water that has to be changed every day or so for about a month. Then, you cook some vegetables (carrots, celery, onion) and LOTS of garlic and pour the hot liquid over the olives in sterilized jars. At least, the recipe is something like that - Chatty will have more details later. Of course, she will also do several batches of the oil-cured black (ripe) olives as well – because they are delicious!
Here are a few olives in the midst of ripening – aren’t they beautiful?
Also, her neighbor has planted two little plots of Italian cucumbers (he swears Chatty has not lived until she tastes real Italian cucumbers – he brought the seeds from Italy years ago…), and an additional four little plots of zucchini on one side of the wall in her small front garden:
Then, when other plants have grown large enough in HIS yard, he will transplant some to the other side of her little front wall – chard, lettuces and so forth.
Chatty also plans to buy some tomato plants to transplant for The Wiz (because The Wiz is a tomato hound!), but our neighbor says we have to wait until monsoon season is past, and it isn’t so humid – so that won’t happen for a few weeks.
Chatty has no idea how this little gardening experiment will turn out – because although she can cook any vegetable known to man, she has a black thumb when it comes to growing her own. But, according to her neighbor, September is the time to do this in Arizona, so that she will have fresh vegetables into the winter. And her neighbor has a back garden FULL of beautiful vegetables, so he obviously knows his stuff!
Please cross your fingers, because with her nice (and ever vigilant) neighbor standing by - Chatty has hopes!
Eat well. Dream big!
Note to self: visit Chatty this winter!
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WOW! What a magnificent olive tree! That settles it, I hope you have a spare room, cause I'm movin' in!
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Chatty, I am SO incredibly jealous! Here in Iowa are summer crop season is coming to an end. All we have to look forward to is a bleak winter ahead, no fresh veggies from the gardens, no warmth to grow them in, or to warm our bodies with. Nope, just cold and snow in our horizon. Ok, now I'm depressed! *SIGH* Feel free to send those yummy olives and winter veggies my way!!
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How wonderfully fantabulous for you!!! I love green olives! Black are good too....on pizza and stuff. Well, they are both good in salads too, but I love the green one's best!
So, does this "green thumbed" fantastic neighbor know how to make "Olive Oli" from your olives?
That'd be SO COOL! I bet I could grow an olive tree here in South Texas! Though, we are always way more humid than Arizona. {I didn't realize Arizona could actually be humid, LOL!]
And, the garden is going to be superbleeduper!!! Wayyyyyy coool neighbor!!!
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OH MY goodness....
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Good for you on the gardening ideas. I would love to do that!
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An olive tree and a great garden! I would love to have an olive tree in my yard...
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Thanks to all who have wished me good luck with my garden - although, considering my past experiences - it will be the garden that needs the luck!
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