Mulwala Brined Olives — Old Traditions, New Flavours

There’s something special about preserving food you’ve picked with your own hands. This season, I gathered plump, ripe olives from my dad’s property in Mulwala, New South Wales. The trees were heavy with fruit, and it felt only right to bring a few buckets home and brine them the old-fashioned way — with a few modern tweaks of my own.

Brining olives takes patience, but it’s one of those slow, satisfying kitchen rituals I love. Not only does it connect me to family and the land, but each jar feels like a little bottle of tradition with my own stamp on it.

My Mulwala Brined-Cured Olives

Ingredients:

• Fresh olives (ripe, plump, and preferably dark for faster curing)

• Non-iodised salt

• Water

• Apple cider vinegar, I sometimes use white vinegar

  
  
  
  
  

Method:

1. Pick your olives, choosing the fattest, ripest ones. A gentle squeeze should release a cloudy, milky liquid if they’re ready for brining.

2. Sort by colour if needed — darker olives are more mature and brine quicker than green ones.

3. Rinse the olives well, discarding any shrivelled or badly bruised ones.

4. Cut a small slit into each olive, or give them a light bash with a flat stone or the side of a knife to help the brine penetrate faster.

5. Soak in plain water for 2 days, changing the water daily to begin leaching out the bitterness. Keep the olives submerged with a small plate or clean weight.

6. Prepare your brine: dissolve 1 part non-iodised salt to 10 parts water by weight. Submerge the olives fully in this brine in clean jars or containers. Loosely seal to allow gases to escape. If tightly sealed, open the lid every couple of days.

7. Curing time varies:

   • Slit or crushed olives: 3–6 weeks

   Change the brine weekly if you want to speed up the process, or less often if the olives stay submerged and mould-free.

8. Check weekly. If mould appears, discard the brine, rinse the olives and the pot, and make fresh brine.

9. Taste-test after a month or two. If they’re still too bitter, leave them longer.

10. Once they’re mellowed to your liking, make a finishing brine:

    • 2 parts salt

    • 5 parts apple cider vinegar

    • 20 parts water(Example: 40g salt, 100g vinegar, 400g water = around 500ml brine)

11. Pack the olives into sterilised jars. Cover with the vinegar brine, then pour over a thick layer of olive oil to seal out the air.(I didn't need the oil to cover mine as they all stayed submerged.)

12. Seal the jars and leave for at least a week to let the flavours mingle before sampling.

Storage:

• Unopened jars: up to 6 months in a cool, dark place

• Opened jars: refrigerate and use within 3 weeks.

There’s something so satisfying about cracking open a jar of olives you’ve brined yourself. Each bite tastes of family, and a little of that Mulwala sunshine.