Take the Cure

I've been promising so many people that I would demystify olive curing, that I guess now's as good a time as any. But first I'd like to explain why.

I could talk about my fascination with things Italian--including the fact that I married one--that olives are an important part of the Mediterranean diet which has become the model for eating healthily. But it's a bit more ethereal than that: olives are a metaphor for slowing down and replacing spontaneity with contemplation.

If you have inadvertently or responding to a dare tasted an olive fresh from the tree you will understand the challenge and conundrum of curing; those suckers are BITTER! If you are expecting that innocuous thing at the bottom of your martini glass you will be shocked. How in the heck to you get from one form to another?

...to be continued...