How to Identify the Silver Berry Part 1/2
So here we are today with one of my most favorite plants, this is eleaegnus umbellata or autumn olive or silver berry or autumn berry. I first heard about eleaegnus umbellata when I was reading Toby Hemmingway’s Guy’s Garden, which is a great book and it really intrigue me all the different uses he talked about and I’ve never seen an eleaegnus plant, at all. And whence the nurseries and in and have them, went around looking for them in the neighborhoods and didn’t see them, you know, the wild lands and didn’t even see the Russian olives, which is supposed to be invasive here and I couldn’t find one. And then finally I was able to plant them in my garden, and there’s so many berries I can’t believe it. But, eleaegnus is suggested and permicultivated to be planted as a nurse plant or a nitrogen fixing understory plant, so grows fast, it’s tough, it’s wind, drought tolerant and it builds the soil. Not only does it put roots in the soil and mix it up, but it actually fixes atmospheric nitrogen into the soil. And then the leaves drop off in the winter time and they create lots of molds, it breaks down really fast. So, it’s good at keeping the whole system going, but again all those uses are seem to pale when you get this huge crop of fruit. And they’re super good for you, omega 3, 17 times the lycopene as a tomato, all kinds of things, they’re addictive. I mean, I can just hardly stop eating them. And many other people have reported the same phenomenon. And so this one still, after being attacked by chickens and children and adults, still has berries on it. And if you wait a while, they actually get all sweet, there won't be assurgency, and this is another one. This one is a little bit variety, and it was old as silver berry and the leaves definitely are more smaller and more silver, but as far as I can tell it isn’t umbellate, and the berries it makes are not ripe yet, they’re still green. Interestingly enough, this is a same variety that I planted in the other parts of the garden, I mean, they’re supposed to be the same variety, and they are not ripe yet. So not all of them ripen at the same time, I think this one will ripen in autumn but the finch, tons of berries. I mean this is like the come free of fruit, it’s just incredible. Look at all those berries. So you can see the silver dots on all the fruits, makes it really beautiful. Technically it’s a fruit, not a berry, but, looks like berries. Just can't quit eating these guys, they are just amazing. Look at all the berries, look at them. So, you can spit the seed out if you want, but the seed is also edible and good. It does have a fibrous husk on it, it’s after eating handful of them, I have a little bit of fibrous plug in my mouth and I want to spit that out, but you can eat that to, it’s extra fiber. This is better than the other one. So I don’t mind if I drop them, for one, there’s so many, you can never get them on. The chickens eat them, I can say, they love them. So the local kids here that frequent this garden, they found these berries to be one of their absolute most favorite berries. So a lot of the adults here, you know, they’ll take a bite out of it and they’ll be like, oh, it turns your mouth inside out, and what not, and I could say, if you wait until they’re completely 100 percent ripe, they’re all sweet. But they’re still good when they turn your mouth inside out, and there’s something about that quality that just in a good way. But the kids absolutely love them, and they get excited about it and it’s just the plant that they really talk about. The interesting thing is, they doesn’t really have a name, some people call this, you know, autumn olives, which I don’t think is very descriptive because it’s not an olive, a lot of people think it is, because the leaves are little bit silvery and they think, oh, it’s like an olive, like ovilasae, but it’s not. And another thing that people think, you know, is that they’re only ripe in the autumn, and this, this is August and we’ve eating some of these plants here have been ripe since July, so that’s not quite autumn. And I’ve heard them called autumn berries, I’ve heard them called goomy, which is an Asian name, and that’s a particular variety, it’s multiflora, eleaegnus multiflora that usually they talk about with goomy, but I can't distinguish any difference between the multiflora and the umbellate at least as they’re sold at a nursery trade. And the berries seem to taste identical to me. So that’s another name, silver berry is a name, because they have the silver speckles and I think that’s an okay name, but there are other plants that are also called silver berry. So, eleaegnus was what I call them and I just, and I despits the plant when I see the plant, ah, eleaegnus, and it works. But it’s kind of a mouthful and for a lot of people, especially for kids, especially for little kids, so these were pretty much named inside out berries by the local community of children here. And it’s become now they tell their teachers and they tell their parents, and so, in this community now, these are called inside out berries, and they love them, they go I can't wait to eat the inside out berries and yeah, me too. And I, I’ve even got me calling them inside out berries instead of eleaegnus, it’s just really catchy. So, I love it, we’re reinventing the culture here, you know, new names for plants, new uses for plants that are from another place, you know. New foods and new culture around the food, and that’s, that’s what we’ve got to see, you know, our, our culture and our food systems are completely unsustainable and ecologically destructed and we have to come up with new ones and that’s what we’re doing here. It’s not just, you know, science class or agriculture, this is rewilding at its best. Creating this new cultures, so, enjoy some inside out berries.