Wellness

[Bird]

On 1/17/2015 Campion said:

What a great idea--those barrels. Do you have to buy them at warehouses?

Not at warehouses. A few people purchase them from importers (who repackage the olives into smaller containers and sell wholesale) and equip them with valves and faucet type hardware for different uses. I get them from a local farm market.

I've seen someone rig a sequence of them under a rain gutter to collect rain water. We have used ours when a hurricane wiped out the power. We had water for livestock, flushing toilets, and washing, but of course we ended up smelling like wonderfully good olives.

Costco sells a better barrel for emergency water, BTW. I just like my olive barrels! - Bird

ETA: Sorry about the huge picture!

[Toppers]

I love to eat olives. I always have.

Our area grocery stores have olive bars next to their salad bars. They also have a hot food deli and a cold food deli, too.

I think that people must buy the different kinds of olives and put them in their salads, or in antipasti trays, etc., or probably use them in different recipes.

[lucylover64]

I have always been curious about the olive bars and their ""purpose."" Thank you everyone for the interesting information!

[Moonchilde]

On 1/16/2015 sidsmom said:

I would guess those olives are HEAVILY doused with additives to make them look pretty since they're exposed to the air. Also...I would be curious to see if the oil/liquid they are sitting in is actually olive oil. I would guess a cheaper oil would be snuck in there to reduce costs, but not affect taste.

Olives are so good on their own...why muck it up with all the extra oil they've been sitting in?

"Healthy addition"? I would question that.

Whole Foods markets have huge olive bars. I doubt their olives are swimming in unhealthy gunk.

I'm not an olive connoisseur, but I have bought a small variety just to sample. It was interesting, but I don't need to repeat.

[DiAnne]

The market I shop at has a salad bar, olive bar, soup bar and poke poke bar. I make use of all of them!

[Sooner]

On 1/17/2015 The Bird said:

Olives are imported in these big barrels, which I buy used, for emergency water storage. They hold 50 gallons and the olive aroma never leaves them:

Oh be still my heart!!!! I want one for my birthday! FULL!!!!! I guess you can buy happiness after all

[Tinkrbl44]

On 1/17/2015 The Bird said:

Olives are imported in these big barrels, which I buy used, for emergency water storage. They hold 50 gallons and the olive aroma never leaves them:

So you end up with olive flavored water?

[haddon9]

I think Wegmans has the best salad, olive, humus and chinese food bars! Love them all!

I also like the hot food & salad bars in Whole Foods.

[Bird]

On 1/18/2015 haddon9 said:

I think Wegmans has the best salad, olive, humus and chinese food bars! Love them all!

I also like the hot food & salad bars in Whole Foods.

WF uses a lot of canola oil in practically all of their hot and prepared foods. I won't touch them. I do utilize the plain salad bar almost daily, though, being wary of any tray of prepared oily stuff they sometimes add.

Concerned about a tray of beets in the salad bar that looked oily, with great difficulty I finally was able to ask the manager if there was oil in the beets. She had to track down the preparer, a person of little english who seemed to have the option of making the stuff any way she wanted, so be careful if you don't want canola oil in your diet. For me, I won't touch WF's prepared items. - Bird

[Bird]

On 1/17/2015 Tinkrbl44 said:

On 1/17/2015 The Bird said:

Olives are imported in these big barrels, which I buy used, for emergency water storage. They hold 50 gallons and the olive aroma never leaves them:

So you end up with olive flavored water?

Yes, but olive flavored (actually, just olive scented) water is better than no water when you have no water coming out of the faucet due to storm damage! - Bird