Thursday, May 09, 2013

Olives

High allergy season here in Vegas, with all of the flowers and local vegetation blooming. Our yard is a major contributor, with the variety of things we have. The biggest producer of pollen around here are the mulberry trees, which are not native but used to be planted everywhere because of the great shade they provide. But now standard mulberries are banned and only fruitless (non blooming) varieties can be sold in the valley.

The same is true of olive trees, which we do have. Out front are two big olives that were probably planted back when the house is built. We don't eat the fruit, but there is a little old couple that comes around in the late fall and asks if they can pick from the trees. We don't keep the trees cut to a nice picking size but just let them grow, which has resulted in some rather large plants. We do hose them down now, to knock off some of the blossoms and reduce the number of olives produced because they are a mess just falling off of the tree. I was surprised at how fragrant the flowers are.

Here is B hosing down one of them - something she does every other day for the two weeks the blooms are opening.

15 comments:

will said...

Making olives is real simple. A pottery crock, maybe 2-4 gallon in size. Cut a piece of plywood so it's loose within the pot. Nail a scrap piece of wood as a handle on the disk. btw the wood lid keeps the olives submerged.

Soak fresh picked olives in a lye solution. Frequently rinse olives in fresh water.

We did this many times - and used the bath tub … the lye solution will clean the pipes and a tub water spigot is the right height.

After the rinsing, put olives into jars and add a brine solution.

Anonymous said...

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Bonjour Joe ! :)

Ah ! les allergies c'est très embêtant avec le pollen !

Les olives ... hum ! j'adore ! :o)

GROS BISOUS
et bonne fin de semaine !!!! :)
•✰ •✰ •✰ •✰ •✰ •✰

angryparsnip said...

Lots of olive trees in Tucson too.
I remember when I was younger there was a spray to help keep the trees from blooming but have no idea if that is still true ? or if it even worked.
Olive trees are beautiful but what a huge mess they make, first the blooms and then the dropped olives.

Your trees are beautiful but huge are you not afraid of branches falling off in a wind storm ?

cheers, parsnip

JoeinVegas said...

We tried the spray for a few years, but it has to go on just when the blossoms open, which they do over a period of several weeks so it takes repeated applications. We found just using a hard water spray at the same time knocks the blossoms down and is just as effective.
We get some limbs breaking in high winds, but try to keep the tree trimmed and relatively open.

PerthDailyPhoto said...

Magnificent olive trees Joe, such a shame you can't leave it to do it's own thing.

Anonymous said...

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Bonjour et merci pour ta visite sur mon petit blog Joe

GROS BISOUS
et bon week-end !!!! :)
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Stuart said...

Man, that's one big olive tree.

Anonymous said...

•✰ •✰ •✰ •✰ •✰ •✰
Un bonjour amical chez toi ! :)
Je t'envoie de GROS BISOUS
et je te souhaite un bon dimanche!!!! :)
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SOL's view said...

That's a great photo Joe. Again. :)

Anonymous said...

•✰ •✰ •✰ •✰ •✰ •✰
Un petit coucou juste pour te souhaiter un bon début de semaine !:)
GROS BISOUS !!!!!
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Blond Duck said...

The allergies are just calming down here!

Anonymous said...

•✰ •✰ •✰ •✰ •✰ •✰
Bonjour et merci Joe pour ton gentil com sur mon petit blog ! :)
GROS BISOUS pour toi d'Asie et bon jeudi !!!!! :)
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Anonymous said...

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Un petit coucou chez toi Joe
GROS BISOUS d'Asie et à très vite !!!!! :)
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Anonymous said...

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Merci Joe pour ta gentille visite sur mon petit blog ce mardi ...
A bientôt !!!!
BISOUS d'Asie vers Las Vegas :o)
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Blond Duck said...

I hope you're having a good week!