74 



STATE BOARD OF HORTICULTURE. 



Slitting board, or cutting device for slitting 

 olives. 



Slit Olives, Water Cured. By no method is there a more 

 appetizing olive pickle put up than by this process; while it is 

 very simple, more care is required than in any other. The 



fruit must be choice, 

 well selected, and of even 

 ripeness. The olives are 

 picked by hand into 

 baskets or boxes lined 

 with burlap or cloth and 

 something placed in the 

 bottom to keep them 

 from being bruised. 

 When they are brought 

 in from the field they are 

 at once turned into bar- 

 rels of water. A lot of 

 the berries are dumped, 

 upon a padded table, 

 which rests upon a barrel filled with water. The help 

 standing at these tables pick out the blackest ones and run 

 the rest down into the water. These black ones are the ones 

 cured. The help (women preferred) seated at tables with 

 cutting knives prepare them for the treatment. The knife is a 

 block of wood with a hole just large enough to allow a good 

 sized olive to pass through. There are four little knives 

 (although two are preferred by many) of very thin steel pro- 

 jecting into the hole. As the olive is pressed through it is 

 given four straight, even cuts, and then falls below into 

 a keg of water. The olives remain in these kegs (the water 

 in which is changed every day or two) until the bitterness is 

 removed, when the olives are put into brine and are ready for 

 market. The fruit, being slit, requires less salt than when pre- 

 pared without slitting. Too strong brine has a tendency to 

 injure the flesh of the berry and soften the fruit. Brine made 

 of ten ounces of salt to the gallon of water is best suited for 

 slit olives. After the fruit has been put into kegs or barrels 

 the brine is liable to become " strong," due to leakage, evapora- 

 tion, or exposure to the air. It should be drawn off at inter- 

 vals and replaced with newly made brine. Fruit should never 

 be allowed to remain in brine that has become foul; but when 

 the proper precautions have been taken, brine should keep in 

 prime condition for a season or more. 



