I thought I had posted these before, but can’t find them, so here is a post with my favorite things to do with Autumn Olives:
Autumn Olive Fruit Leather:
4 cups of Autumn Olive pulp
1 Tbsp Lemon juice (optional)
2 Tablespoons local honey, or to taste. It helps make the leather more pliable, as well as adding sweetener.
Combine one half cup of water to every 4 cups of berries and boil on the stove until the seeds have separated from the berry. You can add fresh mint if you want. Run through a food mill or a sieve and return pulp to a saucepan on the stove. Add the honey. Pour onto mad for your Dehydrator, or parchment paper, will work fine too. You want it to be about 1/4″ thick, and even as possible. Place in Dehydrator on 140 degrees for 10-12 hours. Or you can use your oven on the lowest setting, checking for doneness. You can tell if it is ready by peeling it from the parchment and by touching it in the center of the tray. When it is done it will be tacky but not sticky. Also when it has cooled it is more likely to be less sticky than when you test it when it is warm.
To store, I cut mine into strips and roll in parchment paper. I’ve been successful storing it in the cupboard just wrapped in the paper, in the fridge, and in the cold room. We love to eat the leather as is, or cut with a pizza cutter, into little squares and add to cookies, or muffins. I love Autumn Olive Oatmeal cookies!
Autumn Olive Shrub
Makes on very generous quart
Ingredients:
- 4 cups fresh autumn olives
- 3/4 cup honey
- 1 cup apple cider vinegar (I prefer Braggs, or another brand with the mother, that has not been pasteurized. You can use anything but the health benefits are greater when you use raw ACV.
- 3 cups water
Instructions:
- In a large non-reactive pan (stainless steel, or enamel coated), combine all ingredients, except ACV. Bring to boil, reduce heat to simmer and cook until autumn olives are soft, about 20 minutes.
- Strain mixture through a food mill over a large bowl. Allow to cool.
- Add ACV.
- Transfer to clean glass bottles. Keeps for one month in the fridge. Shake before using.
Autumn Olive Sauce
Add 10 cups of autumn olives to 1 cup of water. Bring to a boil on medium heat. Once the berries open, all the juice comes out. Lower heat. Simmer 15-20 mins. Run the juice through a food mill to remove pits. You can add this to apple sauce, or leave as is. I like to combine in recipes. You could use it in a muffin recipe, too!
Autumn Olive Wine Jelly
This uses Pomona’s Pectin so you can avoid sugar, and use the honey instead. You will need 1 box of the pectin for this recipe and it’s prepped as outlined.
Predissolve Pectin:
Bring 1/2C autumn olive pulp to a boil and put in blender/food processor. Add 1t Pectin and process on high for 1 min. until Pectin is totally dissolved.
Make Calcium Water:
Mix ½ t calcium powder to ½ cup water.
Make jelly with:
- 1 1/2C chardonnay or white zinfandel
- (or any blush or white wine)
- 2 T lemon juice
- 1 t calcium water
- 1/2C Pectin-autumn olive
- 1/4C honey (or to taste)
Combine wine, lemon juice, calcium water and honey to the pan, dissolve honey and bring to a boil. Add Autumn Olive/Pectin to the pan. Stir 1 minute, return to boil and remove from heat. Fill ½ pint jars leaving ¼” headroom. Water bath 10 minutes.
HI! Meg Ebba here, from just down the street. What is an autumn olive?! Do you mean a quince? Our quince are pretty puny. And what farm do you know that will sell you a big ol’ crate of seconds? I am going to pick drops at Butternut this week; do you have any other suggestions?!? I would also be interested in a bulk extra tomato source. I harvested all mine but only got 10 quart jars of sauce! And of course we’re eating it like gangbusters. Oh well, they were an heirloom breed and they got all sorts of dieases. Better luck next year! At least my garlic rocked. Thanks for blogging!
Hi Meg, Autumn Olives are a berry. You have a huge tree across the street from your house, next to the little while building on the corner. I don’t know if it’s got fruit this year, I haven’t checked, but it’s the huge bush and the berries are red with tiny white specks, and are sort of olive shape. They have a unique flavor, but the sensation is similar to cranberries, but sweeter. They have a tartness you notice first with a sweetness that comes in. They aren’t super fun eating fresh, but if you make up the recipes I listed, they are delicious. The crate of pears came from Mack’s Apples. I think this is the only one they had. It was requested by someone for Pear wine, and they backed out, so they needed a home and I buy bulk every year so they offered it to me. They are the only source I have for pears, and you can buy them by the bushel, if they don’t have crates left! We got tomatoes from “The Root Seller”, Dan Compte. You can find him at the Rollinsford Market on Sunday and Wentworth Greenhouse, or the Northwood Market on Thursday afternoon, across the street from the Library and Northeast Credit Union. I have not check with my quince source to see how they did this year, or if they are going to process themselves, or need a little processing help. I have friends with a tree who give them to me to process and I give back 1/2 of what I make. Fun! Thank you for reading and commenting!
I also commented above, but I just have to thank you again. I read about autumn olives in Sam Thayer’s book, but didn’t understand what to do with them. This is helpful!