Patience with olives brings rewards

AMAZING TO TASTE: Transferring olives into fresh jars, with some flavouring to match.

I had not held out high hopes for my six jars of pickled olives, which had been sitting in brine water since May 4.

The instructions had been dutifully followed: a solution of 100g of salt to one litre of water, changing the water once a week, and shaking the olive jars twice a day.

A warning note here - jars are not as leak-proof as you might think. Salty water leaves white stains on dark-coloured carpet. Your partner might praise you for getting all down-to-earth like rustic Tuscany, but she won't believe you if you blame the dog for the stains.

In any case, after six weeks, they didn't look like store-bought olives. Their colour had gone a homogenous mauve, which I'm told is how it should be. I had heard that some olives are artificially coloured, or at least go especially black with certain treatments.

But, after six weeks, my wife and I decided to try the olives. They were delicious.

Very salty, not surprisingly, but absolutely amazing in taste.

So, borrowing from the internet, in particular a useful one from Better Homes and Gardens, there are two directions to go.

I could either flavour them and eat them now, or salt them for a future date.

1. Eating now:

To help remove the excessively salty taste, olives can be transferred to another jar and filled with clean water. Keep the olives in the jar in the fridge for 24 hours and taste again. Repeat if they are too salty.

Although the olives can be eaten plain, you can also add flavourings before serving.

I've chosen to have combinations of chopped lemon peel, oregano, red onion, minced garlic and basil to my batches.

2. Eating in a year's time:

Put warm water into a pan, and add salt to the ratio of one cup to 10 cups of water. Bring to the boil, then allow to cool.

Put olives into a jar. Pour brine over them until all are submerged. Top jar with 1cm of olive oil, tightly screw on lid to seal and put in a cool cupboard. Store for up to 12 months.

When you want to eat them, pour out the brine and repeat with the clean water procedure and flavourings as above.