Harvesting Wild Autumn Olive
960 views · Published 30 August 2018 · 4:02 · Indexed 20 September 2026
Channel: Magical Hoof · 2018 · People & Blogs
Autumn olive is most notable for its high concentration of lycopene. Lycopene is a well-known carotenoid thought to decrease the risk of prostate, lung, and stomach cancers, decrease LDL (bad) cholesterol, and decrease the risk of heart disease. Americans get their lycopene mostly from tomatoes, which contain about 4.6 mg of lycopene per cup. Cooking tomatoes increases the bioavailability of this lycopene, and canned tomato products such as soup and sauce contain even higher amounts - a cup of tomato soup contains about 26 mg. Although tomatoes contain high levels of lycopene, they simply can’t compete with autumn olives in this regard. 100 grams of raw fruit boast an average of 38 mg of lycopene, and some samples have tested even higher, all the way up to 54 mg! Autumn olives contain other healthy carotenoids too, such as β-carotene, lutein, and phytoene. It’s also a good source of vitamin C, providing 27.8 mg per 100 grams of fresh fruit. Many non-academic articles report that autumn olives contain other vitamins and minerals, but I couldn’t find any sources to back this claim up. It may be conjecture based on the vitamin content of related species. You can eat the berries fresh, but the taste is a bit acerbic. The ripest berries are sweeter... but "sweeter" is very relative: they're still pretty sour. Thankfully, if you don’t care too much for the raw fruit, autumn olives make delicious jam, jelly, sauce, fruit leather, and wine. The sour and fruity flavor of autumn olives is similar to pomegranates or tart cherries, so recipes that call for either of those fruits might be worth experimenting with. .. https://www.northeastsuperfoods.com/blog/2017/10/4/autumn-olives-the-invasive-superberry Foraging the Autumn Olive: http://returntonature.us/foraging-the-autumn-olive/ https://ouroneacrefarm.com/autumn-olive-foraging-autumnberries/ https://www.wellnessgeeky.com/autumn-olive-berry-plus-fruit-leather-recipe/ Autumn Olive Jam Recipe: https://www.ediblemanhattan.com/recipes/from-our-recipe-archives-autumn-olive-jam/ Autumn Olive Fruit Leather Recipe: https://ouroneacrefarm.com/autumn-olive-fruit-leather/