Autumn Olive

It has taken a while for me to get this post ready for writing. Every time I thought I was ready I would realize I needed more photos as this is a shrub that was unknown to me up until my foraging hike, even though I was to discover that I have tow of them in my own yard!!

This is definitely an important post for anyone who wants to expand their fresh produce for no money.

Autumn Olive, Elaeagnus umbellata, is a shrub in the area that is on the MA banned plant list. It was brought into the area to be used for erosion prevention. It has become an invasive species in the area right up there with Bittersweet and Kudzu. But it does have its redeeming qualities. The berries are a great easily harvested source of lycophene, containing eighteen times that in tomatoes in its raw form, and more when cooked.

I was unaware of its existence until I went to that edible wild food seminar at my library. The presenter, Russ Cohen, gave us pieces of Autumn Olive fruit leather, and it was just great!

Russ is a seasoned forager who took us on a great hike at Birchwold Farm here in Wrentham, pointing out almost 30 species of edibles right at our back door!




Autumn Olive, so named because it looks like an Olive tree in the Autumn, is on the MA Banned Plant list. That means it can't be sold, imported , traded or planted here in MA. That is because it is invasive to our native species and in some cases has overrun and killed off many. All the more reason to locate some and harvest those berries so that the seeds do not get distributed all over buy the birds. This beautiful shrub has the most fragrant flowers in the spring. Any of you who visited my gardens then will remember that fragrant scent coming from both sides of the yard. And that is because I have two of them gracing the perimeters and didn't know it. I thought they were Deutzia. That was the closest shrub I could come up with years ago when trying to identify those fragrant blossoms. Now I know better!! All the while I have been harboring a source of berries that are truly more healthy for us than tomatoes!!!

So I started out having to wait until they were ripe, which wasn't until the beginning of this month. Prior to that, you would not like them as they are so tart, that once in your mouth, you spit them out with the first bite!! But with patience I waited and found that they did indeed become a terrific sweet tart taste treat. I have been picking berries since the beginning of the month, have enlisted my hubby, two daughters, and two grandkids to help, so that we have been cooking and dehydrating so many berries that my dehydrator is now burning out!! The kids all love the fruit leather so much I can't keep up with their desire for it. A 100% natural snack, that they love, that is free!! What could be better!!



The berries start out green, then yellow, orange then red with silver spots all over.




When fully ripe they become a bright deep red plump with the juice often bursting out upon a strong contact. The berries are plentiful all over the bushes.




And, as my adult daughter found out they are very easy picking! In half an hour I was able to pick a gallon just myself! It takes about two gallons to make just one patch of fruit leather, so there is a lot of picking involved. But each bush has so many berries that it is an easy process.
So this is what the ripe berries look like.




I find that I get a lot of leaves and unripe berries in my bucket, but since I strain them out, it doesn't matter. I use different buckets in the picking. I have a cut out milk gallon, with a rope through the handle that can be used over your head so that you can pick hands free. That is the most popular picking bucket. I have fashioned some scoop type buckets out of heavier plastic, but they don't hold a candle to the milk gallon as it keeps both hands available for picking. For the low branches, i just sit on the ground and position a large bucket under a given branch and just swoop the berries right into the bucket with both hands.




The next step is the cleaning of the berries. When it was nice outside we just sat out on the steps and would fill a bucket with water and put in a few scoops of berries at ta time. You keep the water level a few inches higher than the berries. Then you just move your hands through the berries gently, so that the leaves, stems, and other matter ( Often got snails in our buckets and other bugs!!) float to the top and can be skimmed off.




Then I strain out the excess water.





And put them into zip lock bags if I am not cooking them right away. I keep some in the refrigerator for snacking and if I am going to be cooking them soon. And some I put right into the freezer for future use. I don't bother to get rid of the stems as we can sort them out when snacking and they get sieved out when cooked. The seeds are edible. They are not as big as grape seeds, and I just eat them with the berries.




Once clean I use a large Teflon coated pot (for easier cleanup) with only about 1/8 inch of water to keep from scorching the berries. The berries need to be simmered for 30 minutes. As i don't have a food mill, I mash the berries before they get too hot, then stir as needed to keep from scorching. The mixture gets real frothy.

Next I pour the hot liquid (you can let it cool down, or not, it doesn't seem to make a big difference) into my sieve and push it through with a wooden spoon scraping the sides and mashing it more as I go.





When I am left with just seeds, stems and other "stuff", I scrape the bottom of the sieve






and then ladle the fruit puree into the food dehydrator, using the plastic liner that you get for fruit leather.





It takes about 21 hours to produce the fruit leather. When complete it has turned to a nice deep maroon.




Here is the completed rolled fruit leather.




As I don't measure the berries, I use the left over puree for a great snack, to mix with with applesauce or I just put it in a pan to freeze. After it is frozen I break it up into pieces to use for future cooking or in my daily fruit smoothies, in place of blueberries, which have less lycophene.

It is not too late to find some yourself. There are huge areas of Autumn Olive bushes at Birchwold with lots of berries ripe for the picking. I will be heading out a few times later in the week to get more berries myself if you want to join me or need help in identifying the bushes.