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. |
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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!
For more stories, photos and videos of
Italy, click
here
For more on
Retirement Topics,
click here and
here
About the Authors
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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