What Is That? Olives
When we receive visitors from outside the country, the most common question we hear is “what is that?” Inevitably they will be pointing to something that is not quite distinguishable, something that you don’t see everyday, or maybe any day in the States. While we don’t always know the answer (we continue to ask “what is that?” on a regular basis ourselves), we would like to document some of the most memorable and unusual sights we see as part of daily life here in a series of brief posts.
“It looks like a soda bottle. The red label reminds me of a particular brand of soda I’ve had before. But what is that inside of the bottle!?!” The answer to today’s “What Is That?” post is olives. These are green olives curing in a homemade brine consisting of salt and water. Because Turks are a practical people, they see no need of buying a special container to cure olives when they have so many bottles readily available.
Vats of olives on the street available for purchase.
Olives are harvested in late fall in Turkey. Some are processed for olive oil and others are cured for consumption, mostly during breakfast. The olives in the bottle pictured above came from our neighbor’s grove. They harvest and cure the olives themselves. Before my neighbors helped this novice understand olives, I didn’t realize that green and black olives come from the same tree. Green olives are harvested before they ripen and black olives are harvested after ripening.
Our neighbors have olive trees at various stages of development in their grove.
I had quite a disdain for olives before moving to Turkey (meticulously removing them from the veggie pizzas that my family and friends enjoyed), but now I crave them. I think about them when I’m not eating them. Once I have popped one small, perfectly cured olive into my mouth I can continue devouring them until dehydration and hypertension set in from the salt. I exaggerate but I really do love them.
What about you? Do you like olives? Do you have any "What Is That?" questions regarding Turkey?
To our friends in the West, keep looking East!
Leslie Connors
Leslie is a co-founder of West2East. Originally from Tennessee, Leslie has called Turkey home for the past eight years. To read more about her, click here.