Culinary Cnut
Being a bit of a gastro-snob I have maintained for years that black olives are superior in every way to those nasty bitter green ones and only a prat would ever grow the greenies. About two years ago I learned from Rick Stein's telly programme that the blacks are ripe green ones. My face? Red as a ripe anything else.
(Captain Spod, Thu 15 Jul 2010, 18:12, 5 replies)

???
I thought they were green ones dyed with squid ink...
(gearanach #wankwankwank, Thu 15 Jul 2010, 19:00, closed)

I think
that it is stoned black olives - as ripe olive flesh is to soft to remove the stone from.
(Littlesirjohn sprung up his head and so amazed them all., Thu 15 Jul 2010, 21:28, closed)

\really really? i thought they were different aliens too...
(boduchess, Thu 15 Jul 2010, 22:10, closed)

Washing olives
I only discovered last year that olives don't come off the trees fresh and ready for eatings. They have to be washed, often several times, sometimes with brine, before they can be eaten (except for one kind, I've been told, but I've not met one).

So all those times I've been gazing longingly at decorative olive trees thinking I could pluck one and eat one, I've actually been planning crippling stomach cramps.
(niceandwarmandhot vive la résistance, Thu 15 Jul 2010, 23:52, closed)

Not so much ripeness as fermented or cured in alkali/salt water, the black ones are naturally ripened but but I always thought they were blackened through chemical action and pressure cooked to kill the bugs as an industrial shortcut and were therefore less trustworthy.
(Benzyl, Fri 16 Jul 2010, 17:28, closed)