I'm out here in San Francisco where the food is blowing me away.  With a nod to all the wonderful sons and daughters of Italy here, I have to say I've had better food out here than in Italy last summer.  But here's my point...seeing lots of olive trees out here (and am loving Cali olive oil).  Is anyone else growing olives with their figs.  Pardon my ignorance, but do you eat the olives off the tree?  What do you do with the olives besides marvel at your beautiful Mediterranean orchard?

Go ahead and eat an olive right off the tree. Then you will be real motivated to set me a letter bomb. Olives need to be cured, through one of several processes (google it). Olives should be compatible with figs - they come from similar climates, etc.

I have three (Russian ) Olive trees at the perimeter of the house lot. The trees bloom in June and in the evenings spread the heavenly scent throughout the neighbourhood but the small olive fruit is not edible.
The silver colour leaves look beautiful throughout the growing season.

Uncured olives are very, very bitter.

Unlike figs, they are evergreen trees, how does one go winterizing them
[up north] unless one has a big GH? I do have one olive, grown as a semi-bonzai,
just to remind me of my old country.

Also tried loquat; Forget-about-it! Not sure if loquat can be easily pruned.

George, if your were mentioning about my (Russian) olives up North, the Russian olives are cold hardy trees that go dormant like figs and drop leaves in fall. But they are beautiful in landscape.

Russian olives are invasive in Wisconsin. So is its brother, autumn olive. The good thing about autumn olive is that the berries are pretty tasty! Too bad that there is no relation to the real olive tree from the mediterranean.

Hi Ireiley,
i grew up in our house eating much italian food that mom and dad cooked and gotten spoiled because when i went to restaurant in later years it was hard to find good dish like home. Dad would never go to italian restaurant , but i did find a small italian deli that dad new the owner who was from his home town and it amazed me how good his lasagna was just like dads you swear they were brothers. The squid, calamari, was also great that he would serve in that little hole in the wall.

Go ahead eat an olive off a tree you dont have my address.   ; )

Ottawan,

No, I was only referring to that normal edible olive (Olea europaea) that one buys form any super-market/deli.

Hi lreiley. Please enjoy Frisco's  food and weather.
I think it's the best place in the whole world to sample fine authentic cuisine from just about any corner of the world. not to mention some of finest and freshest ingredients.
as far as olives I have a total 9 olive trees in So-cal . 4 Picholine , 2 Kalamata , and one of each  Manzanallio,  Leccino and Maurino.
the purpose for planting those trees was was for harvesting the olives and sharing them with friends and family. but since we are so close to the Pacific Ocean; the olive fruit fly has managed to ruin the crop year after year. so our friends share their olives with us.

I grow olive trees in containers and overwintered in the greenhouse. The go through dormancy in winter, but they don't shed their leaves, in spring they bloom and they set few olives. 

I will eat an olive from the tree.
And I know where half of you are!

We were golfing one day, and I noticed tons of olives on the golf course trees.  I picked 12 lbs of them as we waited to tee off during our round, and came home and cured them in salt brine.  They are wonderful!!  Then I went back and  broke off some suckers from those nice trees, stuck them in the ground, and two grew.  They are 1 year old now and about 2' tall.  It will probably be years before they bear fruit, but I know they bear huge olives!!

So I do have olives, figs, pomegranates, and wine grapes.  Citrus too.  I've been to Greece a few times, and it reminds me of home.  Southern California.  Same poppies, trees, hot breezes, everything!!

Suzi

I'll be getting an Arbequina olive tree from Edible Landscaping.  This is the only kind they carry, and they specialize in plants that do well in my zone (8).  Is this the kind that smells good?  I'm really making way with my mediterranean garden.  Two types of figs, two meyer lemon trees, a bay tree on the way, and now maybe an olive.  The &%$# birds, rabbits, and squirrels are very well fed.

I have a few olive trees as well. 

As it were: There is an Aesop Fable about a conversation between a fig and an olive tree.  Here is one interpretation of it:

An Olive-tree taunted a Fig-tree with the loss of her leaves at a certain season of the year. "You," she said, "lose your leaves every autumn, and are bare till the spring: whereas I, as you see, remain green and flourishing all the year round." Soon afterwards there came a heavy fall of snow, which settled on the leaves of the Olive so that she bent and broke under the weight; but the flakes fell harmlessly through the bare branches of the Fig, which survived to bear many another crop.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

~james