Olive Making Woes

The olives have me worried.  I sorted through every one of them and washed them with thoroughly with lots of water.  While I was doing this, Bruce mixed up the lye solution in the kitchen.








We filled two crocks half full of fresh water, added the olives and then mixed in the lye solution.

The olives were so plump and beautiful. It seemed that nothing could go wrong. I think we were overly confident...

Now, two days later and after changing the water four times, they look like this.  I took this picture in the dark, but you can see that the fruit is all blotchy.  It just doesn't look right.  Even worse, the olives don't appear to have taken in the lye as they should -- it seems that there's either too much or not enough.  I can't figure out which.

I cut one open and tasted it and I think that it's more bitter than the untreated, fresh from the tree fruit was. 


I'm hoping that that by tomorrow afternoon a transformation will have occurred.  Gilbert and Gloria's olives were as mild and buttery as ripe avocados.  I thought we followed their recipe exactly.  Crossing my fingers and hoping for the best.