Comments on: On autumn olive berries

By: Noorjahan

Noorjahan — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 12:52:49 +0000

I would very much like to have some seeds of the autumn berry.plz, if I am not annoying you…could you send me a few…email me on moidhu@intnet.mu. Thank you a lot!

By: sharon vile

sharon vile — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 03:24:08 +0000

A couple of years ago, I used the berries to make homemade granola bars. The recipe for this is basically: One cup whole wheat flour, one cup oatmeal, one cup cornmeal, one cup brown sugar, one cup fruit (any kind), 1 tsp. salt, a little oil, and enough water or fruit juice to make get a “cookie dough” consistency. Shape into bars (a corn-stick pan works well for this), and bake at 350 for about 1/2 hour.

You can also add nuts, such as sunflower seeds (one cup, as with everything else), or other stuff, such as coconut or raisins. My kids especially liked this recipe made with bananas, so you could throw in some mashed bananas.

I liked these a LOT. You can use the whole raw or frozen berries. The seeds are not noticeable.

By: sharon

sharon — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 03:13:25 +0000

I’ve been trying to come up with good recipes from autumn olive berries.

One that was fairly successful was to puree the berries and reduce them to about the consistency of canned pumpkin, and then make this into a pie by substituting the autumn olive puree for canned pumpkin.

I would suggest topping with whipped cream, to make it more interesting.

My daughter made an autumn olive berry pie by using the berry puree, sweetened and thickened with cornstarch, as the pie filling. To dress it up, she swirled cheesecake batter into it. You could use a graham-cracker crust. This was quite good!

The “pumpkin pie” version would also probably be improved with a swirl of cheesecake batter (cream cheese, sugar, eggs, vanilla).

We have talked of adding a caramel sauce swirl, but haven’t tried this.

I think there’s an iconic dish of some kind to be made from autumn olive berries–probably a dessert.

Because of the flavor, a person can get the idea that autumn olive berries would make a good “spaghetti” sauce. I tried this but found the flavor too overpowering. I’m thinking you could make a good salsa with autumn olive berry puree.

I hope everyone will keep working with these berries till someone comes up with an iconic American dessert or other dish!

By: Rick

Rick — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 17:43:32 +0000

A few years ago I found a nice sized Autumn Olive tree growing along a road here in East TN and grabbed a few handfuls of the berries. Some of these I scattered on my property along the side of a dirt and gravel road that was cut in for a power line. Last year I found 4 trees that had sprung up from the scattered berries and this year two of them produced berries! Alas, the birds beat me to them, but I did manage to get a handful. I went back to the other tree and harvested a couple of cups, some of which I plan to distribute around our property in NC. They are supposedly invasive here also, but I consider them a blessing and a gift from Mother Nature. Silk Tree and Tree of Heaven are invasive, not these wonders.

Rick F.

By: zach

zach — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 00:59:04 +0000

autum olive and rusian olive are not the same thing they are in the same species though rusian olive is Elaeagnus angustifolia and autum olive is Elaeagnus umbellata the genus Elaeagnus is also a nitrogen fixer and is used in a lot of permacultere gardens or tree gardens

By: Rocky

Rocky — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 01:30:19 +0000

El -
I do not know Leslie of Dreams and Bones by name, but maybe by face. About to make a motherload of Autumn Berry Jelly for Real Wild Foods.

By: El

El — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 12:40:38 +0000

How lovely, I hope you enjoy both the berries and the time picking them! It’s a banner year for them here in Michigan. I wish you a fun Samhain with a warm fire and good food to eat!

By: berryhappy

berryhappy — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 01:53:01 +0000

today, Samhain2009, inspired by henry david thoreau ,i told my love lets go berry picking and looking at me kinda funny he said, its kinda late for that. I replied take me to the swamp or the bog, lets take the children for a walk and see. We found lovely berries as i suspected! they are quite tasty and my husband said his mouth loves them! We identified them at home and learned a new wild food! iam going back for more tomorrow and will try your chutney idea! simply smashing! ~CapeCod

By: El

El — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 13:11:16 +0000

Stacey, I hope you were able to find yourself a bush or two. However I am not so sure how much they'd like the Sunshine State, but, hey, if you had them in Georgia... Milkweed, that is quite funny. I still wish you lived closer so I could "help you" with the mead-making process. So many fun things to try out there! Rocky, how fun is that, a wild-food event! Do you know Leslie of Dreams and Bones? She's a part-time MV resident, and generally wins the Island's fair's tomato trophy every year; she actually got me hooked on those berries. Look her up!

By: Rocky

Rocky — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 20:57:05 +0000

I live on Martha’s Vineyard and just harvested a motherload of autumn berries for our upcoming Slow Food Wild Potluck. I had chutney in mind…thanks for the inspiration.

By: Milkweed

Milkweed — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 23:30:52 +0000

Well, sitting on my porch processing autumn olives for mead, I decided to take a break and google “autumn olive recipes” to see if I got inspired to concoct anything else from the little buggers.

Lots of jam and fruit leather, ho hum, and then: what should I come across but a Fast Grow the Weeds post with just the idea to strike my fancy: CHUTNEY!

Everywhere I go, there you are. Thank you!

By: Stacey

Stacey — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 14:40:18 +0000

I used to eat these growing up in Georgia, My Grandmother would pitch a fit and tell us not to eat them cause they could be poison… but we had been sneaking and eating them for years so of course our logic was we had not died yet so it was fine Oh and we kept eating them! I live in Florida now and I have not found them here!! Does anyone know where I can get a bush to plant here? :/ Missing my poison berries

By: El

El — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 15:45:34 +0000

Pattypan: Yay. I am a big fan of fruit leather, usually making it with grape pulp or applesauce (though any fruit will work as you mentioned). I picked another batch last weekend just for out-of-hand eating. The lycopene content is a bonus certainly!

JJ: Hi, glad you found the site. I think the reason we really know so little about these berries is because they aren’t natives. Unlike blueberries or cranberries we don’t have a tradition of eating them! But yes, as Stina said above, they can make a good hooch. I’m glad more people are discovering them: they’ve turned from nuisance to something useful, and dang, they’re even good for you too…

By: JJ

JJ — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 15:38:18 +0000

For the longest time, I always thought to myself, I’m going to cut those darned bushes down. They keep growing and getting in the way of mowing the yard. Then I watched a video on a local news broadcast of a guy in Mt. Pleasant, MI claiming to be the one bringing attention to these berries (won’t support or deny this claim). Since then, I’ve been reading as much as I can about these berries and found your site. Great timing!

I’m planning on harvesting as much as I can as I have several bushes on my property and probably more than I think I do. I want to make wine out of it and I’m seeing many recipes for jam.

This is simply the greatest. Wild berries right in my backyard for wine and jam. It can’t get any better.

By: pattypan

pattypan — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 01:14:38 +0000

just now making autumn olive fruit leathers. a squeezo is great for separating the seeds from the pulp and the pulp from the juice. the first run thru expresses the bitter juice. run the seeds thru a second time for a sweet puree. the pulp is good raw or cooked. any juice drained from the pulp i like to drink. very high in lycopene ( thr red stuff) too.