Autumn Olive ForageFest 2025

Globular Glory on Peck Road

Today was the 2nd Mitchell Family Non-Consecutive Annual Peck Road Autumn Olive ForageFest! What a glorious day!

It was 80*F by 10am and everyone was sweating profusely under their heavy burdens of snack-laden backpacks and empty berry buckets. Family members under 5ft tall were complaining of fatigue halfway through the walk, dismayed to learn that they had to walk the second half to get back to the van.

The berries were at their peak, ripe and red, clustered so densely their branches bowed down to meet us. We took turns using the low-tech berry picking device, basically a wide tooth comb attached to a small handheld bucket. While we waited for our turn, we used our high-tech berry pickers, better known as our fingers.

Three gallons of berries were harvested before the oppressive heat of the day forced our hand and we headed back to the car. The berries will go through quality control to remove all the spiders, then proceed into the pot to be cooked down into a thick juice. The juice will be combined with a modestly large amount of sugar to offset the tangy bitterness of the berries, then spread on parchment paper sheets to dehydrate in a low oven. The result will be a pleasingly tart fruit leather that the kids will probably turn their noses up at without delay.

Either way, it was a wonderful day that we cannot wait to repeat in 2026. Hopefully the weather will be a bit cooler so less sweat ends up in our fruit leather.

Cheers!