Aaah, ‘tis the season when olives hang heavy and ripe and juicy on the trees in the Pelion, and you can just reach up and pluck one off the branch and pop it in your mouth and bite down and …. Argghhhh, pffffftttttt, gag, sclrrrr, ack, blahhhh! Don’t do that. There’s a reason you never see “fresh” olives in the grocery store. It’s because fresh olives are rank and filled with something called oleuropein, which is super bitter, even for a bitter-fiend like myself. I learned this the hard way so you don’t need to. I also learned how to get rid of the bitter, at least enough of it to make the things edible: Bury them in salt or salt water for a long period of time, which sucks out the oleuropein.