It’s olive-picking time.

I was surprised that the olives on our trees have managed to stay on the trees after all the typhoons we’ve had this year (the last typhoon which blew by last night was number 28 for the year).

For me, the olives are best when they are between the green and the dark purple shades. When the olives are green they can sometimes have not much pulp on them to eat. Dark purple olives are creamy but sometimes too soft after I pickle them. A blend of green and purple on the olives makes for good olives when I do the pickling. But I’m not fussy; I’ll take the olives in any shade and pickle them because I love olives.

While doing some yard work I noticed big bites taken out of some of the olives. So I put the yard work on hold and picked the olives.

There’s not that many olives that came from our two trees but I won’t complain. These olives were the easiest I’ve picked yet, seeing as they’re in my back yard. And when I think about it, a lot of recipes that I’ve used that call for olives usually ask for just a small handful of them.

I’m still going to try to get some more olives from other sources this fall, but these olives are the first to be picked and pickled this year. I’m happy for this harvest.