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nafex - Re: [NAFEX] Autumn Olive Harvest and 'Garnet'; wine

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  • From: "Dr. Lucky Pittman" <lucky.pittman@murraystate.edu>
  • To: "'North American Fruit Explorers'" <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Autumn Olive Harvest and 'Garnet'; wine
  • Date: Thu, 14 Oct 2010 13:20:25 -0500

Mark,

The pathologist friend who gifted me with the autumn olive wine had access to several hundred feet of large mature AO bushes that had been planted as screens/windbreaks in his neighborhood. 

I’ve not picked many in my day, but stopped at the end of one of those rows a year or so back, and if memory serves correctly, it seemed like it was a fairly simple process of just stripping handfuls of the fruit off into a bucket. I’d bet I could get gallons of fruit in a very short time – might have some leaves included, and some bugs might come along for the ride, but I’ll bet I could get volume.

The berries ‘keep’ for a long time in a Ziploc bag in the fridge.

 

Hey, while I’m thinking of it – did that native bamboo I sent several years back survive for you?

 

Lucky

 

From: nafex-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:nafex-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Mark Lee
Sent: Thursday, October 14, 2010 12:25 PM
To: North American Fruit Explorers
Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Autumn Olive Harvest and 'Garnet'; wine

 

I have one autumn olive. A few years ago, I spent an hour and picked enough of these to make one bottle of wine. I'm wondering how people are picking buckets of these. Very slow picking for me.

How did the wine turn out? It was some of the best wine of any kind I have made. I placed the fruit in a mesh bag. I think I had a pint of fruit. I crushed them with my hands. I then added some water. I don't recall how much. I then added fructose until the juice hit 20 brix. After racking, everything settled-out and left behind a warm colored white wine. It looked and tasted just like chardonnay with notes of tropical fruit. My wife did a blind taste test of the autumn olive wine and a real chardonnay, and she picked the autumn olive as the best. She has never liked any other wine I have made.

I look forward to another year when autumn olives are abundant so I can make more of this tasty wine.

-Mark Lee, Seattle




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