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Post by ottawagardener on Nov 22, 2009 10:01:40 GMT -5
Anyone grow this? It is sometimes called 'cherry olive.' I've heard of it in a couple places and there is a nursery nearby that sells it but I hear variable things bout the flavour. The local nursery seems to let his dry into 'raisons' before consumption. According to pfaf, the seeds inside have a fibrous shell which makes them less palatable without separating. That being a laborious task as the berries aren't that large.
Anyone have experience growing this?
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Post by plantsnobin on Nov 22, 2009 10:47:31 GMT -5
Sorry, I can't give you any info on this, I stay away from anything in the Elaeagnus family, as we have fields and fields of the russian olive around here. You can't kill the stuff. Nasty thorns that hurt for two weeks if you get pricked, but the worst part for us is the flowers. They are incredibly strong, you can smell them from 1/4 mile away. My husband is terribly allergic to them and he is just miserable every spring due to them. You can't make people around here understand how important it is to get rid of them. Including his brother, who lives just down the road and they are growing wild all over his place. He thinks they are good food for the birds. They are, but there are other things that are just as good without taking over the world. He will learn too late, you really do need a bulldozer to clear them because you just can't get close enough to cut them because of the thorns. I have also tried eating the berries this year, awful. I don't know about other species in the genus though, but I can't imagine the small size being worth it, but I have been wrong many times before. I bet Stevil has had experience with the genus, I think he has grown everything there is to grow.
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Post by castanea on Nov 22, 2009 11:46:50 GMT -5
I have one. The fruit is very tiny and somewhat astringent until fully ripe. The taste is OK. They are sweeter when dried but they are even smaller when dried. At that point you have a very small amount of flesh clinging to the seed. The good thing is that they are very early, the earliest fruit I have here. Basically I would consider them to be closer to being a famine food.
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Post by ottawagardener on Nov 22, 2009 12:19:32 GMT -5
Karen: I've definitely heard that about the Russian Olive and I suppose it could be similar with this species as well.
Castanea: Doesn't sound really worth it then. I think I'll stick to cherries and hazelnuts. Thanks.
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