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Last night, my mom called me just as I was sitting down to eat some dinner. She asked me what I was having and I rattled off the food sitting in front of me, "a big salad, a pear and some olives." Sounding shocked, she said, "But I thought you didn't like olives!" I confessed that I crossed over to the olive loving side several years ago and have no intention of going back. She was so pleased to discover that I could now be counted among the olive loving crowd, as she has never met an olive that she didn't like and had been afraid I had inherited my father's dislike of the cured fruit.

These days, my favorite olives for straight eating are these Cerignola olives that I buy at DiBruno Bros. (their huge, gorgeous store is only a block from my apartment, which is both wonderful and extremely dangerous). I have also gone through phases where I prefer the tiny, salty Nicoise olives or the painfully sharp pitted Calamata olives.

So which camp are you in? Do you love or hate olives? If you love them, what's your favorite variety? Have you ever tried home curing olives?

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