Autumn Berry Inspired a field guide to the autumn olive

It started on an organic farm in Urbana.

Dustin Kelly harvested his first autumn berries there in 2010. He's been promoting awareness and control of the tree, and wide-spread eating of its abundant, tasty berry, ever since.

Dustin Kelly standing in a thicket of autumn olive at the edge of a field, holding a pair of loppers.
Plate 1 Dustin Kelly, in the thicket.
  1. 1930s–1970sConservationists plant autumn olive along highways, farms, lakes and rivers.
  2. 1980sIt is declared invasive in many of the places it was planted.
  3. 2010Dustin Kelly harvests his first autumn berries, on an organic farm in Urbana, and Autumn Berry Inspired begins working with food artisans in Central Illinois, Chicago and beyond.
  4. NowThe harvest and processing methods are shared freely, so anyone can pick the berries.

Our history.

Since 2010, Autumn Berry Inspired has worked with food artisans in Central Illinois, Chicago and beyond on autumn berry foods: jam, dried fruit snacks, chia pudding, ice cream, doughnuts, salad dressing, cream cheese spread, BBQ sauce, beer, mead and wine. People love meeting this new flavor in foods they already know.

Dustin and his team developed techniques for harvesting and processing the berries, and they share them freely, in the harvest guide and FAQ, so more people connect with, enjoy and look after their own local natural world.

Autumn Berry Inspired was born to share nutritious, inspiring experiences. While the berries nourish us, they also raise ecological awareness and push us to find new answers to the world's pressing problems. We created the company to promote the fullest use of the resources around us, and to spark a chain reaction of planet-saving projects.

What it's really about.

Picking berries is the kind of thing adults forget they're allowed to do, and the kind of thing children are rarely trusted to do for real. We'd like to give grown-ups a child's afternoon, and children a grown-up's job: swing the stick, catch the fruit on the tarp, fill the bag, and eat something you harvested yourself.

Along the way, something shifts. Once you can name the shrub growing beside your road, you start to see what else is within reach, and what you've been walking past. Most of us live in a smaller world than the one we're standing in. Habit, custom and the price of almost everything quietly narrow what feels possible. A plant on a fencerow is a small, honest place to test that.

So take an honest look at what you actually have access to, whether or not it seems fair. Then imagine a different arrangement: one from long ago, or one we could build together now.

Restoration agriculture.

In the disturbed soils of North America, autumn olive adapted and proved itself uncontrollable. It moves into depleted land and starts the work of succession and soil regeneration. Insects, fungi, birds and mammals follow, taller trees eventually shade it out, and with time the land heals.

We think that makes it worth understanding, and eating, rather than only fighting. Read the whole argument.

In the field, and around town.

Harvest crews, kitchens, markets, a mayor and a capitol: a few years of the project, as photographed along the way.

A large group of volunteers in matching orange shirts standing in a field of tall grass.
Plate 4 A volunteer harvest crew.
Students in orange shirts gathered around a steel table covered in bags of berries.
Plate 5 Sorting the day's pick.
Two harvesters with loppers cutting fruit-laden autumn olive branches.
Plate 6 Loppers and a heavy branch.
Dustin Kelly and Champaign Mayor Deb Feinen holding jars of autumn berry jam and a handwritten sign.
Plate 7 With Champaign Mayor Deb Feinen.
Dustin Kelly holding a package of fruit leather in front of the Illinois State Capitol dome.
Plate 8 At the Illinois State Capitol.
A television camera on a tripod filming beside a table of autumn berry products in a meadow.
Plate 9 WAND-TV, on location.
Dustin Kelly and a colleague at a trade show booth with Autumn Berry Jam banners reading Taste.
Plate 10 At the Good Food Festival.
A farmers market stall under a blue canopy, with jars of jam on a red tablecloth.
Plate 11 Farmers market stall.
Dustin Kelly and his young daughter holding jars of autumn berry jam outside Harvest Market.
Plate 12 Father and daughter at Harvest Market.
Dustin Kelly in a face mask holding two jars outside Walnut Street Tea Company.
Plate 13 Walnut Street Tea Co., Springfield.
Dustin Kelly with an intern beside a research poster at an internship showcase.
Plate 14 An intern's poster session.
A child's hand in a pink sleeve and an adult's hand, each holding a small pile of autumn berries.
Plate 15 The next harvesters.
Dustin Kelly at a market stall beside fruiting autumn olive branches displayed in a white bucket.
Plate 16 At the market stall.

Talk to Dustin.

Questions about a tree in your yard, a harvest, a recipe, or working together: send a note, or message us on social.

Based in Urbana, Illinois.