they ripen after a good frost. Very astringent before that. Autumn Olives are invasive, but the berries are high in Lycopene (sp?).
Curiosity got the best of me this morning and you weren't kidding. Very astringent, at least the dozen or so light red ones I tried. They do have a nice tart flavor though. I know a park 10 minutes from my house that has a huge row of them loaded with berries this year. That's where I'm going to start collecting them. I saw a video where someone recommended leaving them in the fridge for a few days before processing them, so that's what I'll try. I fear if I wait until the frost, the birds will have gotten them all by then. The plan is to make jelly. Maybe I'll dehydrate a bunch too, if I can remove the seeds without too much hassle. I suppose leaving them in there couldn't hurt either though.
Good idea fridging them for a day or two. Interested to see how that works. Prolly could freeze them too. We used a foley food mill to de-seed them. Worth it. Sca
I went out to collect autumn olives and ended up picking more arthritis medicine (pokeweed berries) and some wild grapes. The pokeweed will get frozen and I’ll combine the grapes and autumn olives to make jelly, maybe tomorrow.
I recently got into this experiment and so far it’s been successful: Pokeweed I haven’t even had so much as a stomach ache from the berries. I let the berries dissolve in my mouth and spit out the seeds. According to some sources, you can swallow the seeds whole as long as you don’t chew them. I see no reason to test that though.
I ate a (yes, 1) autumn olive berry today, first time ever. It felt soft, but maybe not soft/ripe enough? Cause it was fairly bitter, and I guess astringent was the word. Took some of the moisture out of my mouth, kinda like an unripe persimmon, just not as bad....
With my limited experience, I can say to go for the ones that are deep red and the ripest. I noticed not all bushes are created equal either. The first spot I went to this morning had plenty of ripe berries but the flavor was lacking and they were very astringent. At the second spot the berries were larger, sweeter and just a hint of tartness, with almost no astringency. That's where I loaded up.
There were quite a few bushes in this row. Went to this one cause there were still berries, most of the others were already picked clean, which was a hint looking back at it... If any are left in a couple days, I'll sample again.
So I cooked down the autumn olives and wild grapes, along with 3 Granny Smith apples for extra tartness. Added sugar and pectin and lucked out getting every single jar to seal. Only problem is the jelly didn’t gel, and is syrup at room temperature Oh well, it does have a good flavor so I’ll find uses for it.
When you open each jar to use, take the time to heat and mix in unflavored gelatin. That should firm it up!
First gathering of paw paws this year. Still a little early for us. Trees are looking productive. One of my helpers cooling off.
We've been getting pawpaws for about the last week, and they have been about average size, due to the dry spell we had the last few weeks. Lost a bunch when we had a brief storm a couple of days ago... But, while I was looking around a couple of the trees I saw these guys! Yep, the milkweed seeds I planted a couple of years ago have attracted their first Monarch butterfly babies! Pretty happy about that... Looked like about 30-40 of them in my few plants, but it is a start.
This is too much like work I started processing today, and blew through half the acorns I collected after and hour and a half. I’ll finish leaching these, then dry it out, and then do the second (and last) batch. I forgot how time consuming and tedious this is. It does smell amazing though, especially being white oak this time.
I had driven past this strange tree for years not knowing what it was. Today I slowed down to get a better look and saw it was loaded with fruit. Persimmon! Never had one before so I picked the ripest looking one. Without a doubt the most astringent thing I’ve ever tasted. There was more cottonmouth in that one bite than in all the college dorm rooms across America combined After some more digging I see I should have left it alone a few more days to finish ripening first. I’m anxious to try it again soon, and maybe even save some seeds to grow my own.
