Photo by Stacey Franco on Unsplash

Are any of these growing near you? Thank you https://ucanr.edu/repository/view.cfm?article=9689%20&search=olive

How to tell if there is an olive tree in your neighborhood:  In the fall and winter you may have noticed purple stains on nearby cars, walks and/or streets. These have been deposited by birds that have taken great relish in feasting on ripe olives and wish to share the wealth (well, sorta). If you noticed this, drive around and look for the tree(s).

These olive trees can be harvested to make your own cured ripe or green olives. Are the olives dropping on someone's property or street? Ask the property owner if you can pick--lots of times they will be happy to let you take some fruit. To sweeten the pot, tell them you will rake and dispose of the drops or will try to drop off some finished olives.

Once you have procured some olives, the processing is not hard, but it does take some moderate labor and attention.

First download  Olives: Safe Methods for Home Pickling  Download it and read it thoroughly.

Pick the type of recipe for curing the olives you wish to make: green, half-ripe, fully ripe; water cured, Kalamata-style, Mediterranean-style cracked, brine-cured, Greek-style brine cured, Sicilian-style, dry salt cured, lye-cured, dark-style ripe olives, lye-cured fermented (like Spanish-style green). Yes there are a lot of different types of olives in this publication as well as out there.

Choose your preservation method--storing in brine, freezing, drying (sun drying, dehydrator drying).

Read all of the information about how you wish to make and preserve your olives again!

Get your equipment and ingredients together--Olives: Safe Methods for Home Pickling will tell you what you need.

Make your olives--and let me know how they came out! 

I just love this site:  https://theWoksoLlife.com/.

Do you like Chinese or Asian food? Tried to make stuff at home that just didn't have that flavor you remembered? A couple of years ago, I discovered  The Woks Of Life and joined their e-mail list. This family specializes in Chinese food and the recipes that I have tried are great.

Recipes come in many varieties like home-style, restaurant-style, easy, more complex, simple. It is a treasure trove of information about Chinese and Asian food that you might want to check out if you wish to cook Chinese or visit your local (or not so local) Chinese market.

Try these links for their fun and informative compendiums of information on cooking methods and "how to" info, Chinese cooking tools, Chinese ingredient glossary (especially nice!), Cooking Methods Used in Chinese Cuisine, and Navigating a Chinese Grocery Store (essential for recreational shopping! )

Thank you to https://thewoksoflife.com/

The most current recipe I have tried from Woks of Life was Easy Curry Beef Bowls. It was tasty and easy; a nice way to use ground beef differently.

Take a look at The Woks Of Life. I highly recommend it.

 Here's something that is fun to browse through, and you will get a bit of canning history education for your efforts.

This digital exhibit about canning comes from the United States Department of Agricultural Library. It is entitled "How did we can? The evolution of home canning practices."  What an interesting and informative resource.

The exhibits are many and consist of historical and vintage pictures, articles and pamphlets and articles. These can be viewed in full on-line. Exhibits on canning history, canning practice, canning declines and resurgences, botulism, important changes to the USDA Guidelines are to be found.

How about Canning through the World Wars?

Great looks at historical information about the evolution of canning equipment (jars, cans, water bath and pressure canners). Take a look at the Tin Can page to see how cans were soldered together by hand when first used.

There is a lot of history here and I heartily recommend that you visit the exhibit and check it out extensively.

University of Alaska Publications

Wondering about the illustration above?  Check out the link--just click it. It is a place to go to find out about all sorts of canning:  From Kale to Cabbage, Sauerkraut and Seaweed, Chicken and Moose. . . Have you ever wondered about how to can that walrus you just got?--I am not kidding, look it up.

Type in something and see if you can find a recipe/directions for canning it on this site. It all comes up in .pdf format, pretty cool. The search engine is specific to their system, and it seems to work nicely!

If nothing else, you will become familiar with a site with directions for a lot of game and other meats and foods. They come up in individual files for your perusal--and education.

And, yeah, there is an article about taking care of those cockroaches in Alaska. Hey, they live everywhere we do!

http://cespubs.uaf.edu/publications/