Grow your own olives for pickling or making olive oil. We offers olive trees that can be grown outside as far north as Seattle. Although Western, WA may not get enough summer heat to ripen them perfectly. They will require protection if temperatures get below 15° F. For best results, growing conditions should mimic a Mediterranean climate, olive trees prefer long, hot summers and are drought tolerant. Where summer heat is lacking or winter cold is a limiting factor, the Arbequina Olive is a natural dwarf and is well suited to be grown as a container plant. It can spend May through September outdoors and brought indoors in fall to a sunny window to ripen the crop. The grey-green leaves are generally evergreen and as a container plant it can be maintained at a six foot height. In the ground it only gets about 10 ft., making it ideal for mechanical harvest, which is one reason it has become the number one variety being planted in California. The other reason it is so popular has to do with its rich, nutty flavor, very aromatic and buttery with exceptionally high oil content. The olives are small and round, dark green to brown and extremely precocious and productive. Arbequina Olives are delicious and its olive oil is distinctive enough to be sold by the varietal name. Olives are not edible raw, they require soaking in brine or soaked in frequently changed water until bitterness is leached out.