> My experience of fresh olives is that they are very bitter.  I think it
> would be difficult to eat more than one or two


i can eat 10 or even more at time ripe olives direct from the tree .
and many other peoples eating instinctivelly do also .
the coop in France selling undenatured foods to instinctos are selling a lot
of it .

taste is not writen on stone ,it is an ever changing experience depending on
your present metabolic situation .
also olives have as many different tastes than wine . from one variety to an
other,  flavors are very different, also it depends on the stage they are at
toward maturity .

Anyway if ever one of you have olives in the backyard send me some i love
them.
jean-claude