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Prolific and delicious wild autumn olive worthy of propagation

Autumn olive is a nitrogen fixing shrub with small edible berries. It's considered a weed for the most part but our sheep love to eat it. Most of the time the berries are small, astringent and sour. Lots of seed not much fruit. I've been tasting all the autumn olive over the years as it appears here on the homestead and never found any worth harvesting. Last season I found this autumn olive shrub loaded with large, sweet, mildly astringent berries. I tried to harvest some and plant the seed without any success. Thankfully this shrub is still prolific and as sweet as ever. I look forward to harvesting all I can as it fully ripens over the next week or so. I will dehydrate some and plant some.

#permaculture #permies #homesteading #grownostr #meshtadel #selfsovereignty #perennial #autumnolive #nitrogenfixer #foraging #wildforaged

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Discussion

HeyWatchItGuys 2y ago

My first time foraging some last year

I like the sweet and tangy taste of it.

rev.hodl 2y ago

Most around here are unpalatable at best. This one is fantastic. I hope I can propagate it and grow from it's seed.

schmuggler 2y ago

very tasty and it supposedly contains all essential fatty acids

rev.hodl 2y ago

Did not know this. Very cool

Niel Liesmons 2y ago

This plant is so underrated!

Jim 2y ago

Natures sour patch kids! To early and we cant handle it but if we get to them at the right time they are pretty good. Every shrib here seems to mature at a slightly different time as well. Not sure what thats about.

My youngest loves the wild ones though. I planted some "cultivated" varieties at my last place...sadly I never got to try them. Dont know if they were selected, bred, or what.

rev.hodl 2y ago

This particular plant has berries that are hardly sour and only slightly astringent. It's berries are huge compared to all the others here and it's totally loaded for the last two years. I think it's worthy of making cuttings and sprouting seed.

CiderMaker 2y ago

Have you tried using the fruit for cider?

rev.hodl 2y ago

Not yet, I picked some from this bush last year but it got moldy in the fridge before I could use it. I'm actually about to pick it right now and dehydrate some so I can at least try cider that way. Have you used it? If so, any recommendations on something to try?

CiderMaker 2y ago

No experience with using it. I have a single bush with a decent crop. But haven’t found the proper use case yet. I wonder what kind of sugar content the juice is. May add some character to a cider…

rev.hodl 2y ago

I'll find out the sugar content of these berries. That's a good place to start.

rev.hodl 2y ago

Almost 7lbs of autumn olive berries from one picking

I spent some time picking autumn olive berries off the prolific shrub I discovered here at the homestead. I was only able to pick half or maybe two thirds of the berries before I ran out of time. Ended up with close to 7lbs. That's getting close to a 5gal batch of cider on its own. Autumn Olive Peach Cider anyone??

#permaculture #permies #homesteading #grownostr #meshtadel #selfsovereignty #perennial #cider #autumnolive #foraging #wildforaged

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𝔼𝕣𝕪𝕟 𝔹𝕣𝕒𝕔𝕔𝕠 2y ago

Oooh yes please to that cider combination! I think a good ripe Eleagnus fruit has a bit of a strawberry taste that would go amazing with peach.

Glad you found a good one; I remember I had found a really good m, flavorful, sweet one as a kid that got cut down 😂 I was a bit sad, though it was growing right next to the magnolia my parents were trying to grow, so I understood.

rev.hodl 2y ago

Disappointing pawpaw harvest

These were all the pawpaws I could find on the homestead this year. Last year I went picking a few times finding many each picking. It's always interesting how some years are great for particular yields and others aren't. In my area it looks like a great year for fruit but the corn/soy farmers are saying it's one of the worst seasons in a long time.

This is one example of how the value diversity principle can provide resilience. Having a diversity of fruit yields and diversity of cultivars amongst those fruits helps to guarantee there will be a good harvest somewhere and the overall harvest is unlikely to be poor.

I also find it amazing, that the more I learn the more food I realized is already growing on the homestead waiting for me to gather it. In addition to these few pawpaws; autumn olive, raspberry, and blackberry are some that come to mind that we have enjoyed this year.

nostr:nevent1qqs246cz23tw5u3tjtnevncnrhtgegy7056y9htf5el2hjpr4urluqcpz9mhxue69uhkummnw3ezuamfdejj7q3qf5pre6wl6ad87vr4hr5wppqq30sh58m4p33mthnjreh03qadcajsxpqqqqqqz54gdgn

#permaculture #permies #homesteading #meshtadel #selfsovereignty #grownostr #foraging #wildforaged #pawpaw