Our Elaeagnus [autumn olive] trees held on to their fruit for a while this year. Or maybe we just have more trees now, but at any rate, I had a lot of berries for several weeks this year. The ducks finally found them and spent days vacuuming up the windfalls. Hilarious!Here's the thing about autumn olive berries - they're sour. Unless you wait for them to get soft. When they're soft, they're much sweeter inside, but that spotty outside skin is still pretty astringent.
OK - it's very astringent.
And the new red berries are pretty sour.
It doesn't matter. You get a delicious product no matter when you pick them. I made this jam with these early sour ones and people loved it.
Loved. It.
My point is this - pick the red berries when you can. Cook them up and run them through a sieve or chinois to separate the seeds and skins. Then make something delicious with them. Like this jam.
This jam can be a no pectin jam. The early red berries have loads of pectin in them and make sure you include some orange or greenish berries. But remember! they also require quite a bit of sugar to tame the sour. Use the full amount. This is not an overly sweet jam.
I've also included a recipe for jam with pectin for when your berries are really good and ripe [and less pectin]
from www.rurification.com
- 4 cups elaeagnus sauce [from about 8 cups of berries]
- zest and juice of 2 oranges
- 1/4 cup fresh grated ginger
- 4 cups sugar
Elaeagnus [Autumn Olive] Ginger Orange Jam with pectin
from www.rurification.com
- 4 cups elaeagnus sauce [from about 8 cups of berries]
- zest and juice of 2 oranges
- 1/4 cup fresh grated ginger
- 3 Tablespoons low sugar pectin
- 4 cups sugar
Want the recipe for this jam and a whole lot of other terrific jam recipes? Check out my ebook: A Simple Jar of Jam at www.rurification.etsy.com. You can preview the book by clicking the link on the sidebar. Every purchase helps support this site. Thank you!