"Jay" > wrote in message
. ..
> Hello,
> My grandmother loves black olives (and green ones too, but for some
> reason I feel safer getting her black ones) so I've decided to put
> together a "black olives from around the world" gift basket for her
for
> Christmas. Do you have any suggestions (I hate black olives, so I'm
> relying mostly on you)?
>
> Notes (optional reading!):
> - I'm guessing it will be 5-8 jars (more if I find them locally = no
> shipping cost)
>
> - I would like them all to be imported (with maybe one exception if
> there's something really good from California or something). How big
of
> a deal is freshness?
>

One company in California produces a unique olive that is one of the
best in the world, the company is Graber and their website is
http://www.graberolives.com/
Take a look and you will see why...

Otherwise, go for fancy-packaged olives which almost any food-gift
store or Whole Foods / Trader Joe should have in ample supply. Do
not worry about freshness as they are brined; as long as they are
unopened they should be fine. Do not buy bulk olives if you can
avoid them, they do indeed spoil after having been out for a while.
This sounds like a great gift, btw.

Neat book you might consider:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/086...83155&v=glance

pavane