Local Olives

A few weeks ago at the park near our house, J picked up a purplish berry-like thing and asked, "What's this?"  I told him it looked like an olive and, looking up, pointed out that we were right near an olive tree full of ripe olives.  J was very excited to pick and eat olives, but I told him we couldn't eat them as they were, that they needed to be "cooked or something" first.  As I picked some, he was still excited about our having lots of olives to eat.  The branches were high, though, and the picking was not easy.  I warned him we wouldn't be able to get a lot; this would just be a "learning project".  From online research, the easiest way to cure the olives was to soak them in brine for three weeks or so, changing the brine every week.  (Slice the olive skins first, but don't cut the pit.) After two weeks, J insisted on tasting one.  It was still a little astringent, but not enough to keep him from eating several more.  After three weeks in room-temperature brine, the olives are delicious, although not for much longer.