I was working in my garden yesterday and noticed something about my false holly (Osmanthus heterophyllus) plant: it has berries! It bloomed back in November. And the berries have been developing all this time?
I was curious to see if the berries were edible. I’m always up for eating strange things from the garden. Searches on the internet tell me it’s related to olive trees. The berries on my false holly are tiny olives! I don’t think olives are supposed to be eaten raw. I think they must be cured before they’re eaten.
A quick internet search led me to THIS page. It looks like the method of choice for ripe black olives is brine curing or dry curing. And it looks like any process I would try takes at least a month. I’m leaving for Nebraska in less than a week. I guess I’ll have to wait until I get back to Maryland.
Are those blue? Are they squishy and sticky once ruptured? If so, they remind me of yew berries we had in our front yard growing up, the squishing of which usually got me into trouble. I can’t say I ever tried to eat them, though; good luck with that. As a non-fan of any sort of olives, I’d declare this not worth the effort either way…but that’s just me…
Those are adorable! Bring them here and we’ll brine them to make tiny little martinis!
I’m guessing technically anything could be eaten raw. Go ahead, give it a little taste. I’m surprised you haven’t. Wouldn’t you like to be able to say whenever the topic of olives come up, that you’ve eaten an unbrined, uncured, raw one? Just think how cultured you’ll sound.
Tip: Dip it in sugar first….how bad could that be?
…or, dip them in CHOCOLATE first. Chocolate would probably make a brussel sprout edible. (…I know…some people actually enjoy those tiny cabbages.)
Did you make olives yet? I want to try to make them, pls update me
Hi Shaina. I’m sorry to say I never made the olives. By the time I got back from my regular trip to see family during the summer, the olives were kind of shriveled up. Then the next summer after that, I had forgotten I wanted to do that. And now I’ve moved away from that garden, so I currently have no olives growing.
If you ever do it, I’d love to hear how it went for you! 🙂