Missing olives

[FindingMegan]

One thing I really miss is olives. I love black olives and spanish olives. Since these aren't raw I've eliminated them. I did buy some raw black olives online but didn't like them at all. They were soaked in oil and salt.

Does anyone have recommendations or suggestions for perhaps what type of raw olives to buy?

[RawTruth]

Hi Megan,

It depends on what type of olives you like ... there are so many available that my local gourmet market has an olive bar (not raw, unfortunately)!!

By black olives, do you mean the ones that are pitted, kinda bland and come on pizzas? I'm thinking that you don't mean black kalamata olives? And, by Spanish olives, do you mean the ones that come pitted and with pimentos in them?

I tasted some raw olives at the Raw Food Festival I attended over the weekend locally. I liked them a lot, but they are very expensive. They might have been too salty for you, though.

Olives are usually preserved in brine, and the ones that we buy at American supermarkets (that my brother and sisters and I stuck on the ends of our fingers when we were little kids!) aren't really typical of most real olives. If that's the taste you're going for, I think you might have a really hard time replicating it in the raw world.

I'll ask for you at my local raw store and raw deli. They're run by two very knowledgeable people. Hopefully, someone else on here will know more.

[Allison]

I just bought some raw Greek olives from www.rawfood.com They are excellent! They also sent me a complimentary jar of Peruvian olives. These have more of a bitter flavor but are still okay.

[yeahbethany]

Hi Megan
I sometimes like to order olives at sunorganicfarm.com. They claim that no heat is used in the processing, and they carry kalamatas, italians, and other kinds.

[FindingMegan]

Oh thank you for the great responses. I will look into the sources mentioned. RawTruth, you're correct in the 2 types of olives I like and I'm not surprised that I will have difficulty in finding comparable raw olives.

I'm willing to try some new tastes but I can't handle extreme saltiness. I've never been much a salt person.

Thanks for the input, I will keep looking and trying. I'm sure as my taste buds change I'll probably enjoy some variety of raw olive.

[RawTruth]

Be sure to let us know when you find something you like, Megan. Good luck.

[Pailani]

I read this here:
http://www.fredericpatenaude.com/food-conservation.html

"Proper Conservation and Preparation of Raw Food

9) Avoid olives unless they come from clean, reliable sources. Bottled and sun-dried olives have one of the highest counts of molds of any food. For this reason, they should be avoided or only bought from reliable sources."

So, be careful!