Olives?

[lallen13]

I have a question about olives. I miss my canned black olives. I have bought several raw olives and they are too strong for my taste buds. I don't want a lot of peppers or spices. They are kind of expensive to try all that are available. Do I need to get dried olives? What raw olive tastes closest to canned black olives? Thanks.

Signed....missing my olives
Lorna

[Texicalian]

Lorna - I'm not really an expert on how black olives taste as I always prefered the green variety. I did buy some raw olives at the farmers market a few weeks ago that are wonderful! They were grown and packed by Adams' Olive Ranch in Lindsay, CA 888-21OLIVE. I got the Mediterranean Medly which contains some spices, but I wasn't overwhelmed by them. Perhaps they even have a non-spice variety. I think they are great - there the first raw olive I've liked so far.

Lori - in the Sacramento Valley

[rawpriestess]

If your olives are too strong, or salty for you, I totally understand, I really loved the flavor of canned black olives, and would easily eat a can a day, plus about 1 cup of the green olives with pimentos, and I never thought they were too salty.

Now I can't even go near the green olives, as they are wayyyyy too saly, and I was buying my raw olives from my local deli, and now they are too salty, my hubby says they taste the same, it's my taste buds being fickle again, (a phrase from someone wonderful on this board that I borrowed).

So, this is what you can do to them, if they are too salty, spicy, simply soak them in filtered water, for about 10 to 20 hours. Keep them in the fridge, while you are soaking to keep them fresh, and try yours this way, I'd hate to see you toss them out just because they are too salty.

Hope this helps.

[CAdreamer]

For me, I eat olives often, whole and olive bruscheta. If that makes me 99.9% raw, then so be it. My husband and I have a few exceptions to the raw diet that just make everything so much nicer....eating olives is one, and oil packed sun-dried tomatoes is another. I don't see any reason to give them up, as I'm not a purist, but practical.

[RawTruth]

Hi Lorna,

You can definitely get raw olives -- I buy Adam's at my local farmer's market -- and they make a terrific tapenade, but like RawPriestess mentioned, they are strongly flavored. The neutral-tasting canned black olives are a processed taste that hasn't been duplicated in raw. I doubt that anyone's trying, either. Black olives naturally have a very bitter taste, and I don't know any way for that to be taken away with the olives still remaining raw. Maybe someone else here can answer that. Perhaps, though, the longer you are raw, the more your taste buds will adapt and you will either lose your craving ... or you will start liking the stronger-tasting olives.

CAdreamer - do you use raw bread for the bruscheta? If so, which recipe? My two favorite breads right now are onion bread and pizza bread, but both would overpower a topping if I used either to make bruscheta, I think.

[CAdreamer]

Actually, I make my own breads, more flat than bread like. I also make crackers and spread on those. My favorite, though, is half an avocado with olive brushetta inside...so yummy. Trader Joe's has two very tasty olive mixes...one is a brushetta, the other a muffaletta. They also have a sweetened kalamata brushetta that's yuck !! I love kala's, so I bought it w/o checking ingredients. Who'd have thought of making a jam out of olives...not the best idea in the world.

We also keep a loaf of Nature's Path manna bread (Essene) in the freezer for emergencies. I think it is baked at very low temps, but higher than it should be, but sometimes we run out temporarily of homemade and it's a reasonable substitute. It's great with all spreads. Whole Foods carries it.

I also sometimes add about a tablespoon (for a 4-serving batch) of either olive mix to my pasta sauce (fresh tomatoes, fresh basil, sun dried tom, and olives).

I simply do not have any food cravings....raw satisfies me, but I use things that are not raw, in very small amounts, only for the extra elegant taste they add to raw without compromising my diet. It's not all-or-nothing to me, 99% works. If it was 80-90%, it would still be better than SAD. Sometimes an all-or-nothing approach to anything reminds a person of 'deprivation' and they too easily quit because the goal never seems achievable without a sense of failure.

[lallen13]

Ok I feel dumb!!

I live In Porterville Ca. I am about 10 minutes away from Lindsay. I knew they had an olive plant there but I hadn't checked out any raw olives. The markets all sell Lindsay Olives in a can.

Thank-you all for the info. i will call and see if I can get hold of these from Adams.
RP I have been soaking my canned olives for a while before I went raw because I knew they had stuff on them and the salt was pretty strong. Thanks

I called Adams Olive ranch and they only sell cases wholesale but he gave me some places to check out. btw--the phone number you gave me....Texicalian!! I dialed it wrong and got an "adult site" They wanted to know if I wanted to talk to a man or a woman LOL. I called 1-888-210-live not 21-olive. Trust me it makes a big difference!

[RawTruth]

My favorite, though, is half an avocado with olive brushetta inside...so yummy. Trader Joe's has two very tasty olive mixes...one is a brushetta, the other a muffaletta.Thanks, CAdreamer, for responding. I'm very familiar with TJ's selection as I used to buy these before I went raw. I thought you made your own. Maybe I'll experiment with doing that myself and let you know the results.


Sometimes an all-or-nothing approach to anything reminds a person of 'deprivation' and they too easily quit because the goal never seems achievable without a sense of failure.I don't feel deprived, personally, but I do understand that this is the case for some people, and getting as close to purely raw as they can is so much better than not at all.