The Manzanilla olives are now ready for picking. These are much larger and rounder than the olives that will be picked later in the year for extra virgin olive oil. If not picked now they can be left to be used for oil as well (a lot will have fallen off the trees though). I failed the first two years of trying to cure the olives, but succeeded in the third. Never try one straight off a tree (bitter as hell).
Curing is a time consuming process. Firstly they need to have the skin split and the best way is to hit them with a wooden mallet (I use the back of my steak tenderiser) on a wooden chopping board, just hard enough to split the olives, then put them into a bucket of cold water. This takes forever if you're doing a lot of olives but when the sun is shining and you have some good music on, it can be very therapeutic.
When you have then all in the bucket, place a large dinner plate on top to keep them submerged, then change the water every day for about 10 days. You can taste one now and again to gauge if the bitterness is gone yet. Then empty the bucket of water and olives, re-fill with fresh cold water and dissolve enough salt in it till an egg will float. (Take egg out!). Replace olives and dinner plate and leave for a couple of days.
I then bottle them in kilner jars with a fresh mix of salty water along with herbs, garlic and a dash of olive oil on the top to stop air getting to them. Leave in a cupboard for three weeks and then eat. You can try a whole myriad of herbs, and spices in the bottling to create something individual. Great for gifts, but not to Spanish people as they most probably have a cupboard full of them!