Into the Wild with Autumn Olive

Autumn Olive

Latin name:  Elaeagnus umbellata

Every year I usually pick elderberries from my mom's house. She cringes every time and reluctantly tries some of my jelly. "Are you sure it is safe to eat stuff from the wild?" I must admit I am a very, very, cautious wild eater. I check and recheck to be sure. I look at pictures in books,on the internet. I make sure of the size, shape, color, leaf shape of the item I am about to consume. I consult friends and ask people knowledgeable about such things. I grew up in the suburbs so eating wild berries was not something we did. 

Picking the berries.

This summer we helped my parents move into a condo. They are getting older so a condo would be easier for them. I was so busy being excited for them, I forgot about the elderberries. What, no Elderberry Jelly this year!?! I was going to have to find a new source of elderberries.

I have yet to find elderberries on my property, but thought maybe there would be something else. I remembered that last Fall, I was eye-balling these little red-speckled berries in the far corner of my property. I often bring the goats down there because this old pasture has been neglected for many years. I need to shepherd the goats because all the old fencing down there is broken. While the goats munch away, I pray, read, look at the birds and try to identify the different trees, plants and flowers down there. 

Showing off her picks.

A couple of weeks ago, I was doing my shepherd duty when I noticed once again the red-speckled berries. I cut off a branch with berries and leaves to bring up to the house for further investigation. I suspected them to be what I saw at my friend Maria's house a couple of weeks prior. She grew cultivated Autumn Olive. But gee, I had soooo many could it actually be the same thing?

I brought the branch up to the house when I was bombarded by my children. "What are those", "Joe was eating them when he was here" "he said his parents grew them" "we asked if he was sure". 

Also called Autumnberries.
Beautiful Speckled Berries.

Charlotte decided she would wait to see if her friend made it 24 hours and then would make a decision about eating these berries herself. Which brings up another great point about children and eating in the wild. I am happy that my children did not eat something their friend was eating, but they should have told me one of their friends had eaten something they were unsure was edible. I also tell my children to not eat around small children because they may think it is okay to eat everything in the wild. I also remind them to not eat anything that looks similar to poisonous plants without my permission.

You need a lot of these little berries to make juice or jellies.
Freshly washed berries.

Even though I knew my friend's son had eaten them and survived I still did more research. I was so excited when I did completely identify these berries as Autumn Olives. The only thing that may be close is the Russian Olive but that tree clearly has thorns on it. My trees had no thorns at all.

My back field is covered in Autumn Olive.  It is said that it is an invasive species, so what better thing to do than eat an invasive species. Yes, maybe no elderberry jelly this year but there was definitely going to be plenty of Autumn Olive Jelly. 

Cloth on canning funnel on top of jar.

So that is what we did, we picked, we juiced, we canned jelly. We also found a way to save the pulp and make a sort of ketchup like dip. The juice tasted good all by itself. If I had to describe the flavor it would be a watermelon/tomato/cranberry. Which is reasonable because like those other fruits they are high in lycopene which the Autumn Olive-berry is as well.

You can also eat the seeds which are said to be like almonds. They remind me more of the flavor of almond but the texture of fennel. The seeds were not very appealing to me, but at least I know they are safe to eat. 

One of my girls help the juice along.  . .

JUICE: Add rinsed berries to a pot. You may add a small amount of water to prevent burning. Boil until the berries "pop". You can also help it along by mashing the berries. After the berries have popped you can pour or ladle this mixture into a jelly bag or cheese cloth over a jar. You can now let it sit and drip. You can help it if you want by scrapping the bag or by squeezing it. The juice does appear milky. I  read on the internet that sometimes it may turn a complete milk color. Ours did not do this but it did have a milk like substance appear as a layer on top.

Juice may have a milky appearance.

JELLY: make just like your other jelly recipes. I used 8 cups of juice, 1/2 lemon juice, 7 cups of sugar and 2 liquid pectin packs. 

KETCHUP/DIP: we scrapped the pulp, including seeds from the jelly bags right into our food processor. we added garlic, apple cider vinegar, salt , pepper and a dash of sugar. Blended. Yum!

Gigi proud of the juice we made.

I still have some more berries and ideas. I plan on mixing it with rhubarb for tarts and jam.

All and all my experience with Autumn Olives was a great one. I still love Elderberries and will be on a search for them. But, Autumn Olive-Berries are a homestead keeper! Yum. I just love it how God provides.

Autumn Olive-berries make such pretty jellies.

Ketchup like dip made from the pulp.

Have you tried Autumn Olives? 

What did you do with them? 

Have you eaten other things from foraging? 

Let me know your experiences.

I love your comments. 

Thanks.

Delicious and Healthy.