Backtrack to Two Days Before

Sunday was a great day where the sun was shining, blue skies, crisp fall/autumn air and autumn olive picking.  The season is sadly coming to a close, so Uncle D. called up and asked if I was up to picking some autumn olives. You betcha!

Ok, so I had like maybe 4 hours of sleep. I did head to bed really late (blaming Warcraft at this point) and I really had to summon some energy to get out of bed. I think I did mention to Hubs that I went to bed late so it would be nice to be gentle on me and let me sleep in. When I heard about the autumn olive hunting, I thought skew sleep, times to go a'pickin'!

I did have an alterior motive too. I really wanted Kiddo and Hubby to come with me. There is this great nature trail that has a sea of autumn olive trees and I always wanted the little one to get out more and appreciate nature.  And I'm glad after a few minutes of /poking Hubby saying, "Come on, come with," over and over he finally grunted like Tim Allen and acquiesed.

Kiddo was the deciding factor. When I asked him if he wanted to go and see Uncle D., Kiddo ran to his computer (of course it was on) and shut it off. I think he said, "I need my shoes!" and ran to go get them.

I looked at Hubby and said, "See, he wants to go. Come on, come with."

It was good that we all went. It was a regular Autumn Olive party with Uncle D. who had about four friends joining and Auntie M. who was amongst the group. Add Kiddo and Hubby and that made...(counting)...nine people.  Hubby was on Kiddo detail, had a soccer ball to play around with, but I think Kiddo enjoyed picking the berries with Auntie M. and Uncle D. even more. Yay!

Kiddo was adorable. He kept saying, "I found berries!" I think he was calling them "Annie" instead of Autumn Olives. "I found more Annies!" It was cute :)

We were there a good few hours, the time really flew by. Knowing that Kiddo was with the group, I was able to pick and pick and pick some really nice and sweet berries.  I still want more, you can never get enough of these things (they are uber healthy and grow in abundance).

I'm finding that there are a number of ways to use the berries, and mostly jams (which the season's first batch I made a small amount with tastes like apples), ketchups and relishes.  I found a fermented relish recipe that I think will work well but I need a few more ingredients.  I'm hoping to make some autumn olive ketchup but I'm finding a few recipes that I'm not sure about.  I guess I can always experiement and hope that it turns out well (I'm just hoping to get a tried and true recipe so I don't waste the fruit).

But it was a blast. I loved seeing the family and it was awesome to be picking with everyone. I kind of stuck to the sidelines because I was in the "berry zone" but I loved hearing Kiddo chatting with everyone. It was really lovely.

Needs more Autumn Olives (and a house to put them in, lol).