One Plant a Week: Autumn Olive
This is the twenty-fourth post in our new series, One Plant a Week, where we learn a new, edible plant every week. That means that if you follow along, you’ll know 52 new plants after only a year of doing this. As our foraging expert guest, Pascal Baudar said on the Wild Fish and Game Podcast, it will make you more of a wild plant expert than 99.99999% of the population.
We recommend you go out and find these plants if they exist in your region. You don’t necessarily have to harvest them; simply familiarize yourself with them and get to know them well. See them in their different phases of life, in different terrains and conditions. See who else likes to eat them (Bears? Squirrels?), pollinate them (Butterflies? Hummingbirds?), or use them (Nesting birds? Muskrats?). Use plant ID apps, along with foraging/ID books, online resources, and mentors to teach yourself about them more and to get comfortable enough with them that you can ID to 100% accuracy.
Then, if you feel confident enough, bring some home and try preparing some to eat. Try doing this with different specimens in different stages of life to see when it is best to harvest them. Knowing these plants through and through will transform the way you interact with the outdoors, as well as the way you see food. A warning though: this is an addictive hobby!
An additional warning: Plant ID apps are not 100% accurate, and you should not be eating ANYTHING wild unless you are 100% sure that it is safe to do so. Do not rely solely on one source for your information (including us), and do not eat anything unless you’ve properly identified it.
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This Week is All About Autumn Olive!
Autumn olive (Elaeagnus umbellata), aka silverberry, is one of the most abundant and controversial wild fruits in North America. Introduced from Asia in the early 1800s, it was planted widely for erosion control, windbreaks, and wildlife habitat. Today, it is considered a highly invasive shrub across much of the United States and southern Canada. Despite its ecological problems, autumn olive rewards the forager with a tremendous crop of tart, ruby-red berries every fall.
What makes this fruit particularly notable is its nutritional profile. Autumn olive berries are exceptionally rich in lycopene, an antioxidant better known from tomatoes, making them one of the most nutrient-dense wild berries available. They are small but plentiful, often growing in dense clusters that can be harvested by the handful.
Foragers can embrace the abundance of autumn olive by turning this invader into food. While land managers work to control its spread, harvesting its berries is one way to both enjoy a unique fruit and reduce its seed dispersal by wildlife.
Description
Autumn olive is a medium-sized shrub that can grow 10–20 feet tall, often forming dense thickets. Its leaves are distinctive: oval-shaped, gray-green on top, and silvery beneath, giving the plant a shimmering appearance in the wind. The bark is gray-brown, and older stems develop small thorns. In spring, the shrub produces fragrant, pale yellow-white flowers that attract pollinators.
By late summer into fall, the berries ripen. They are small (about the size of a pea), oval to round, and bright red with tiny silver speckles on the skin. The fruit grows in clusters along the branches, often so heavy that the stems bend under their weight. Each berry contains one small seed, though the flesh is juicy and easy to work with in bulk.
There are few lookalikes. Russian olive (Elaeagnus angustifolia), a close cousin, produces larger, drier, olive-colored fruits that are less palatable.
The speckled, bright red berries of autumn olive are distinctive, especially when paired with the shrub’s silver-backed leaves.
Edibility:
Autumn olive berries are tart, tangy, and slightly sweet when fully ripe. Some bushes produce more palatable fruit than others, with flavors ranging from puckeringly sour to pleasantly jammy. They can be eaten fresh, though most foragers prefer to process them into preserves, sauces, or beverages where sugar balances their sharpness.
Nutritionally, autumn olive berries are powerhouses. They contain extraordinarily high levels of lycopene—up to 17 times that of fresh tomatoes—as well as vitamins A, C, and E. This makes them not only tasty but also highly beneficial, especially when incorporated into a varied diet of wild and cultivated foods.
Ten Recommended Uses
1. Fresh snacking – Eat ripe berries right off the shrub.
2. Jams and jellies – Cook with sugar to mellow their tartness.
3. Fruit leather – Puree and dehydrate for portable snacks.
4. Syrups – Boil with water and sugar for pancakes, cocktails, or sodas.
5. Sauces – Pair with venison, duck, or other rich meats.
6. Wine or liqueurs – Ferment or infuse for unique beverages.
7. Smoothies – Blend with sweeter fruits to balance flavor.
8. Baked goods – Use in muffins, pies, or tarts.
9. Juice concentrate – Extract juice for freezing or mixing.
10. Dried fruit – Dehydrate for trail mixes or cereal toppings.
Harvesting and Processing Tips
Collecting
Autumn olive berries ripen from September through November, depending on region. Look for heavy clusters of red berries with silver speckles. The flavor improves after the first frost, which reduces some of the tartness.
Processing
Because the berries are seedy, many foragers cook them down and pass the pulp through a food mill or sieve to separate skins and seeds. The resulting puree is smooth, tart, and perfect for jams, sauces, or leathers.
Storage
Fresh berries last only a few days, so process or freeze them promptly. Puree can be frozen in ice cube trays for easy portioning, while dried fruit or leathers store well in airtight containers for months.