spk_1:   0:01
Hello, everybody.

spk_0:   0:01
Hello, everybody. Welcome to the show. The big shows what's important and critical but guessed that is recorded in our vehicle. And we're in the old farm truck vehicle today and we're driving. We're driving and we're talking about friends, and we're talking about one of our old Ferretti me is today. That's right. Now we're gonna have to do a do a caveat here because we've done several things so far on three b y. About our old friend of me, Autumn Olive. And frankly, a lot of people don't seem very interested in, which is kind of a shame, because it's one of the few easily recognizable naturally about not naturally occurring, invasive but extremely abundant, extremely abundant. No, the harvest that is out there, that absolutely nobody picks. And most people do not realize that they are, in fact, edible, not necessarily delicious, but edible.

spk_1:   1:10
Largest chunk chunks of the country have them growing roadsides freely, as we do here in Missouri.

spk_0:   1:18
So what we're gonna do, we're gonna make this a little short podcast about autumn olives. Yes, we've talked about it before, but we're gonna talk about it again because this is such a resource that is just totally ignored. I think it's interesting. And it's also our frenemy because we like the Berries, But we don't like the seeds. The Berries have seeds in them. So pits really, actually, is what they are in. I guess they're both technically. So we're gonna talk about autumn olives. We're gonna talk about the pits, and we're going to talk about why we love them and hate them at the same time. We don't

spk_1:   2:06
have been so the pits,

spk_0:   2:07
love might be a strong.

spk_1:   2:10
Now we make some use of them because they're here.

spk_0:   2:13
Yes, they're they're like they're like the Soviets were in World War Two to the U S and the U. S. Lost to the Soviets, where they're just handy to be. They're handy to have around. They're useful for your purposes. But the minute you're done with them, they're your enemy. Kind like that. So that's we're going to talk about someone. Let's spice tell you what an olive olive is, why we like it, why we hate it and why we, um, are really kind of on the fence about the whole subject.

spk_1:   2:50
Autumn olive is a species of tree that is native to Asia, and some people imported it to the U. S. Because they liked some of its qualities. It grows easily, rapidly, abundantly, aggressively, aggressively. It produces an abundance of edible Berries that the wildlife like and that are pretty decent would eaten by people. So those are all its pluses and those air why people brought it in. And some people are still promoting that preppers planted as a food resource on their land.

spk_0:   3:29
You know, you can if the thing is, though, if you're doing a permaculture type thing and you're planting Autumn Olive measure as one of your main crops, I hope you like it. Ah, lot,

spk_1:   3:44
because it's so you're not gonna

spk_0:   3:46
have a whole lot of it.

spk_1:   3:48
It's an invasive. Which means it's one of those things that succeeded too Well, it doesn't have its natural predators here. Oh, that bull So he can take a

spk_0:   3:57
picture. That bull You go ahead, talk. I'm gonna go back up to take a picture. That bull, it

spk_1:   4:02
does so extraordinarily well in the Midwest of the U. S. And I hear they also have problems with it out yeast and a little bit down south because once it gets going somewhere, it makes these billions of billions of Berries and the birds like the Berries and they eat the Berries and then they go and they deposit the Berries in a nice pile of bird poop somewhere, and you get new trees sprouting up and Morty trees and more trees. They're on edge species, which means they like to grow into stir bland, which means roadsides or moderate, moderately bad pastures. They just get brush hog once a year, like here. We passed

spk_0:   4:47
right now just writing down random.

spk_1:   4:50
While we do this podcast, we will be within 25 feet of certainly thousands, perhaps tens of thousands of wallows in the length of this podcast. So the problem is they spread so easily and so well, and they crowd out native vegetation and then you lose the species that were there in the first place. So having some is not a tragedy. There is, in fact, one at the place, but I let's survive, mostly because it's in a place that's really hard for me to get to with the chainsaw, and it would be a dangerous place for me and try and cut the tree, so I'm gonna leave it there. But I have killed all its offspring and poison their roots. Because if you don't do that, when you get autumn Olive established, it will take over every bit of land that's not already forested in temperate woodlands.

spk_0:   5:44
Okay, if you are a Star Trek fan, the original Siri's we could explain this to you

spk_1:   5:50
their troubles, their troubles without being quite as cute and lovable.

spk_0:   5:54
Yeah, they're not. They don't like bows in your hand and they're not. So yeah, they're Tribbles. And the thing about Tribbles is they don't come in. Dribbles or drabs

spk_1:   6:05
come in boxes and barrels. And soon the world narrows to nothing that troubles you. Uh huh.

spk_0:   6:12
So yeah, they are. That's problem It as a side. We're not autumn olives, best friends. But I could tell you out of all his best friends are poison ivy. Poison ivy. Every time you see out of all of it, look for poison ivy will say, kind of like the same area.

spk_1:   6:35
No poison Ivy's native poison. Ivy's quite native.

spk_0:   6:39
Yes, but if they they often appear,

spk_1:   6:43
they like the same

spk_0:   6:44
happened to like the same habitat It's just they just so coincidental, I think. But any time you see out of Molly, we should look for poison ivy because they're the same. Get that semi open area where there's no big trees. Disturbed ground, disturbed ground, that kind of stuff.

spk_1:   7:01
An early secession, A ll species.

spk_0:   7:04
There you go.

spk_1:   7:05
So we were out at a local park today. A local lake. Very underused Resource

spk_0:   7:11
Yes. And underused Park, which nobody ever goes to. Beautiful place, but and nobody cares if you pick an invasive species at this park.

spk_1:   7:24
Yeah, You are actually welcome in state parks as well. In state parks, you can pick anything edible for your own use. You can't take hold plants, but you can take fruits, nuts and seeds from anything edible or decorative. Release

spk_0:   7:39
of Missouri. You're allowed to take clippings. Not the whole plant, but a clipping for your own use. Yeah, to regrow.

spk_1:   7:47
As far as autumn Olive goes, nobody cares at all.

spk_0:   7:50
No. So take it. I'll take all you want. I

spk_1:   7:53
was actually playing in my little boat out on the lake this morning. Little little lake out there. I was enjoying my little paddle and there was an autumn olive trees. So before I took the little kayak out salty had spotted this when he was taken. Photos earlier in the week saw they were getting ripe, and I stopped and picked. Oh, about four cups of autumn olive, which took me 10 minutes. Yeah,

spk_0:   8:17
probably.

spk_1:   8:18
Yeah. I've never actually eaten before.

spk_0:   8:21
Yeah, so you get a nice little about where we're gonna experiment with him. She may. She may make some leather.

spk_1:   8:26
I'm gonna try a little other. I'm gonna try him in a couple of the things I'm gonna dehydrate a few. I think of that, Does

spk_0:   8:32
the thing about him. First of all, let's talk about how you recognise Autumn Autumn. Once you know what it looks like, there's no confusing it for anything else. It's got the little leaves and their silver on the bottom. So it's a very silvery looking. We'll be driving down the road. You'll see the silvery looking plant,

spk_1:   8:47
especially in the windows. It was over, So relief is the other name for it. That's because it leaves a green on top, but they have a silvery coating on the underside

spk_0:   8:56
when the wind blows. Yeah, you could really see the silver. The Berries come out fall. Usually they start coming out in August. But they could go all the way into late September before they get right, but really depends. And you could tell right berry from or not, right? Very because they're not right. Berries aren't bright red and the right the right. Perry's art of this year's our audibles. You're right, but they're a small because we have very dry year. So it probably had something to do with the the health of the Berries. The Berries become goodness sorry. The Berries become quite bright red when they're ripe, and they've got these little white spots on the Supposed to have that. The spots of the size of a

spk_1:   9:45
pinhead? No, they're smaller than a pinhead. More like a pin

spk_0:   9:49
prick. Yeah, a little bit tight. Tiny,

spk_1:   9:51
tiny little white spots all over the little red Berries,

spk_0:   9:53
smaller heads than yours. D'oh! Because I think we're outside of tiny little things, but they're all over. But that's normal. That's what they're supposed to look like. Go to the story to the company is this podcast and we'll show you pictures, and some of them have the spots cause I just pictures while we were doing this. So those are pretty obvious now. They're

spk_1:   10:16
kind of salary tasting, both tart and astringent.

spk_0:   10:20
Yeah, park industry icom saori tasting, they say. And we're gonna try it this year after the first frost that it sweetens them up a little. So we're gonna go out and pick some or after the first frost and see if that is actually a thing that

spk_1:   10:37
certainly works with many edible tart and a stringent fruits like persimmons. Persimmons actually are good food. We had some persimmon trees where I grew up as a kid. But you absolutely do not pick them before the first frost. Because they are awful, even if they look completely right there, suitable only for throwing at your brother's not like, suitable for that. Or you take a little marker and you make these cute little pumpkins the size of half dollars.

spk_0:   11:05
You through the years that your brothers they threw back, they started. They are a bunch of persimmon throwers. Yeah, you She comes from a crew. They're all like just everyone.

spk_1:   11:27
But after the first frost, they become quite edible. Still not my favorite, but still quite

spk_0:   11:33
edible, like what they do with the with the grapes up in like places where they have early frost like, say, for example, the Niagara growing area Theo Knight Valley or whatever they call it, that nice wines. Their ice winds are apparently to die for. They wait till the first frost or whatever they did car vis the grapes and immediately crush them into ice wine like $45 a bottle ice once. But there were supposedly really good. I haven't had any, so

spk_1:   12:05
I actually do that with my Concorde. Some. I let some of them go until after the first frost because they really do sweeten up. But the Concorde's were so sweet to start with. I don't do that with

spk_0:   12:14
much that they're pretty sweet already.

spk_1:   12:17
Yeah, these up autumn olives are not as a stringent and tart as persimmons are there quite edible right now, Not my favorite. Probably never be my favorite fruit, but a decent flavor track full of vitamin C.

spk_0:   12:33
I don't really care for them as they are,

spk_1:   12:36
but I tell you what, you would be eaten some if we were living off nothing but rice and beans from stored food. You try. Golly, be seven years.

spk_0:   12:45
I don't even know what a sweet Pippi really is. But you better

spk_1:   12:48
I would be a hide them in your food if I had to to get you the vitamin C because scurvy actually is a thing. If you're trying to live off, just start foods and you haven't bothered to stock any things that are vitamin C sources.

spk_0:   13:02
I actually know somebody in the modern world, but got scurvy from having such a bad diet. It's almost inconceivable that you could get scurvy in the United States in 2000 Public 15 at the time. But this person got scurvy in the United States because this person's diet was that bad. So

spk_1:   13:29
it was all stuff that most Americans would consider quite normal food. Lunch meat and cheese and crackers.

spk_0:   13:35
No vitamin C in it at all. None.

spk_1:   13:38
No fruit. Very little vegetables.

spk_0:   13:40
No, but you no vegetables, no fruit, no vegetables. Just meeting dater stuff like that. So yeah.

spk_1:   13:48
Yeah, that's problem. So, I actually, I absolutely do not recommend planting Autumn olive. But if you are in anywhere near its habitat, you'll have plenty available to you. should you choose to harvest some? And certainly I read a lot about various ways it could be stored. Not gonna try him this year and see how it goes so you'll get an update on that later, but they're easy to pick. Ah, a picking apron or picking comb would make it faster because there are about a 1,000,000,000 individuals, small fruits on each limb. And I didn't have any of the picking tools. I just

spk_0:   14:28
say one really good way to, and I tried it, but I'm really good way to pick out a malls. It just hold the bag open and just take your take your hand. Just swipe it down. If they're really right, that's come right off. Just swipe it down the leaves, and that's

spk_1:   14:44
basically what I was doing. I was sticking one end of the branch in the in the open bag that was on my arm and basically just stripping my hand down and just wiggled my fingers a little bit to get all the Berries to fall off. I thought I had a bigger bag. I would have had to be less careful and a little faster, but still, you know I got four cups of the things in 10 minutes, my first time picking him. It's not like it's hard. So they're they're they're available. Their food source. You could do a lot of stuff with him, but I absolutely would not plan. Um, in fact, I have killed off the ones that were attempting to invade the place except the one that's really hard to get to. And I'm gonna be going by every year and making sure I kill off its offspring. So I maintained my prairie because the thing about it is a great food resource for wildlife once a year. But if you're actually gonna keep wildlife, you gotta have things they can eat all year long. And if you let these model cultures of invasive plants come up, even though they might be really abundant for a month or two, the critters got to eat all year long and your wildlife populations will go way down. You need diversity to keep a good wildlife population and to keep healthy land for that matter. And that is the big problem with the invasives that overcome

spk_0:   16:05
speaking of problems. But I just gonna be honest with you here. Keeping biodiversity and controlling invasive species in your perennial production is not nearly as exciting and fun to talk about as what kind of gun you should buy or which type of knife you should be using as your everyday Carrie. It's just not that interesting, but it's probably more critical is probably more important. It is hard. Two. Focus on stuff like no foraging and understanding what you can do with the fruit of this massively common invasive plant. That's much more important from a prepping sense, then whether you should get a Smith and Western or a clock, because, frankly, both are good. Both will get the job done. End of discussion

spk_1:   17:45
types of scenarios where people are low on money and and, uh, could use some free nutrition are a heck of a lot more common than the types of scenarios where you need six different guns to future neighbors.

spk_0:   18:02
Additionally, keeping invasive species under control and away from areas that you want to have as a diverse food production area is very important in good times and bad. This is a 24 73 65 good thing having more wildlife appropriate wild wife I mean, we don't wanna have,

spk_1:   18:41
you know, what was rattlesnakes? Nests under your

spk_0:   18:43
porch is good thing. It's really good thing, but it's just not exciting. So I want to commend everybody who's still listening to this podcast. Both you guys rock because this is not that interesting of stuff. It really actually is. But only if your biology like one of us.

spk_1:   19:09
Yeah, so maybe

spk_0:   19:12
so. Is there anything else you want to add about the autumn? Olive is the update.

spk_1:   19:19
Give it a try. It's out there now. Probably somewhere near you. So take a look at some pics online that will help you. It's hard to get a mental picture of a plant so you can find it based on a verbal description. So take a look picks and give it Try

spk_0:   19:34
if it's in your area. Like I mean, if you're in, if you're in, uh,

spk_1:   19:38
it's not in the desert South.

spk_0:   19:39
You're in Albuquerque. Yeah, probably. But I've

spk_1:   19:42
seen the maps and there's a bunch of it around and,

spk_0:   19:45
oh, yeah, there's a bunch of

spk_1:   19:46
large parts of the country.

spk_0:   19:48
You know, if you're in, if you're in high Colorado country, maybe you won't find it.

spk_1:   19:53
I saw a little bit out there. Not very much.

spk_0:   19:55
Yeah, I didn't figure that would be a but, you know, certainly anywhere in the Midwest. Anywhere in the upper Midwest South. He's just East Coast. Anything like that? California. You'll have it. Oregon. You're probably Oh, my gosh. I'm

spk_1:   20:10
getting at it.

spk_0:   20:11
Oh, my gosh. Check that on

spk_1:   20:13
the man. I saw it. Simone on spread map.

spk_0:   20:18
So thank you for listening, and we'll catch you the next time.