Retire Early Lifestyle
Retirement; like your parents, but way cooler

In 1991 Billy and Akaisha Kaderli retired at the age of 38. Now, into their 4th decade of this financially independent lifestyle, they invite you to take advantage of their wisdom and experience.

Finding an Olive Store in Naples, Italy

Billy and Akaisha Kaderli

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Walking around Naples on this cold, rainy day, we hadn't expected to find a store selling olives.

Barrel after bright red barrel, olives were curing and ready to be purchased.

These little fruits are a big deal and are used in Mediterranean and Middle Eastern dishes for a punch of flavor.

Come take a look.

The front of Olive Miraglia

We had been walking on the main road when we saw bright barrels outside this store, and they caught our attention.

We had to go in.

Olives are typically harvested in the late fall or early winter when they are ripe.

Traditionally, they are handpicked off the trees. This is far more time-consuming, but then there is no damage to the fruit. High quality olives and olive oil is made with manually picked olives.

In some modern olive groves, mechanical shakers and harvesters are used to shake the olives from the trees. This method is faster, but can lead to more bruising of the fruit.

After harvesting, the olives are sorted to remove any leaves, twigs, or damaged fruit. This can be done by hand or using machinery.

Inside the olive store

As you can see, there is nothing fancy about this store, just olives, olives, olives.

Because olives are naturally bitter, they must undergo curing, which removes that bitterness.

They can be soaked in water for several days - which is commonly used for green olives - or they can be soaked in a saltwater brine solution. This method is commonly used for black olives.

After the bitterness is removed, olives can be flavored and seasoned with various ingredients such as garlic, herbs, spices, and citrus peel.

Olive vendor

I think this man was a bit surprised that we had walked into his store and basically knew nothing about olives or which ones to choose.

Here he is showing us one kind of green olive, trying to be helpful.

I took one bite and told Billy we needed to buy some.

"Buying some" meant, you know, a couple of ounces in a bag I thought.

We were leaving for Faeto on the train the next day, and the last thing we needed was more weight to carry with us while on the road!

Olive vendor showing me some black olives

Here I am showing Mr. Olive Vendor my Google Translate. I'm letting him know that I would like some green olives and some black ones too, but we are traveling and needed to keep the weight down.

Initially he had shown me 2-liter containers and I thought "Oh my Lord. We find this place on our last day in Naples. We can't carry that around with us!"

Wanting to please, he finally brought out his smallest container - but it was still far more than we should be carrying, and more than we could eat in several days. But by that time, I did feel obliged to purchase.

Silly me.

How did I get myself into this situation?

Probably my childlike wild-eyed enthusiasm, I'd say...

Poster of the olive products this store sells

I ended up purchasing one of the smallest containers (shown above) of black olives and another of green olives. With the brine, the pit of the olive still inside the fruit and the olives themselves, we had easily committed to carrying 10 more pounds on our trip.

We were olive rich, but pound foolish.

Still, those olives were to die for and we enjoyed them in every way we could while we were in Faeto and also in Lecce. We had them alone as a snack, at lunch with cheeses and salamis, and even put them on sandwiches.

Italian cuisine is famous for its use of olives and olive oil and - because we joined in with abandon - our perspectives and experiences were expanded!

Retire Early Lifestyle appeals to a different kind of person – the person who prizes their independence, values their time, and who doesn’t want to mindlessly follow the crowd.

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