How to Avoid Berry Dry Mouth

 This is my latest experiment with Autumn olives. After softening the berries on the stove and squeezing out their juices and pulp for jam, there's still plenty of food available. Here are the seeds and stubborn bits of pulp smeared on a dehydrator screen in the early stages of flour making. I'll dry them, then give them a buzz in a high speed blender for eventual showcasing in cakes and muffins. I've made wild cherry flour this way before and it's miraculous! Fingers crossed...

About a month and a half ago, I was walking with my friend Corey. We came upon a Autumn olive shrub loaded with berries. I knew it was too early but I shoved some in my mouth anyway. My face puckered and I almost started choking from the wave of sudden astringency. We had a laugh about it, then I thought I should write a little story about this, about autumn olives and needing to have patience for them to sweeten with the frost. 

Ugh, turns out I already wrote this story?! Some things never change. If you're unfamiliar with these magnificent shrubs, check out a this little piece I wrote about them back in 2015. 
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