It’s very dry so it does make an incredible wine. Love it when it’s mixed 40:1 with apple juice since I’m not the type to drink dry wine. Try it with the apple juice it’s a big hit with my family.
1 Like
going to try these cooked together with apples into sauce. should be awesome!
im about a week away from harvest.
1 Like
Aronia are a resilient plant! The berries looked dried up and dead during the drought but ironically most of the plants lived and the dried up berries plumped up! This harvest is nothing short of miraculous!
2 Likes
picking mine tomorrow. the dry summer made them very sweet. been eating some here and there all week.
1 Like
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVQODmBNyFk
So now I feel like I need to try “raintree select Aronia”, anyone growing this variety? Looking for cuttings… 
I got some berries from a friend this weekend, ran them through the juicer also, juice measured 18 brix! Made some jam mixed with grape puree. My favorite so far is 4 cups of grape puree, 1 cup rhubarb juice, 1 cup aronia juice, 4 tbsp LM3 pectin and 3 cups sugar. I made some that is 50/50 grape puree and aronia that is pretty dang good also.
3 Likes
Jam or jelly?
1 Like
just harvested my galjanka and viking. made some glam jam and dried the rest. gonna have to try your recipe Derek. still haven’t found a recipe im really crazy over. thinking maybe trying a b. currant/ aronia jam mix.
1 Like
If anyone here drinks cola. Ive been adding about 15ml of straight aronia juice / can and its pretty good. Reminds me of cherry coke, but better.
3 Likes
I find Viking & McKenzie are very good berries at my location! My location is far from ideal due to lack of water sometimes. All of the revenue from my fruit the last couple of years is generated by the aronia harvest. In Iowa yields can be 100 pounds per bush but in my location the harvest on a mature bush is around 10 pounds. The bad thing is my Aronia are increasing in production and I will need to branch out to sell them further away in a couple of years. Most all of my berries go to a large juice company and a brewery.
1 Like
aronia grows great here. mine are 3rd. leaf and average about 20lbs. biggest problem here is winter snow damage breaks half of last seasons growth. i bet i could get about 50lbs/ bush if i could find a way to minimize the damage. im considering buying land and growing/ selling them commercially also. no farmers around here sell them, or even know what they are. would do elderberry too. you have a berry harvester or hire pickers to harvest?
1 Like
A berry harvester is about $30,000 so I worked a deal with a friend where he harvests the berries and he delivers them and he gets half the profits. I take care of the bushes.
3 Likes
Mix it 40 parts apple juice to 1 part aronia and its amazing.
1 Like
they arent the best tasting berry but i eat some right off the bush and they arent too bad. gonna try the juice mixed w/ honey i heard is pretty good.
1 Like
So just reviewing this thread and I am curious. Are aronia the same as choke cherry? Or are they different?
I suspect they are closer to apple/pear than cherry, but some of the uses sound like how choke cherries were used.
1 Like
No they are different aronia are a choke berry but not a choke cherry.
1 Like
What brand and model masticating juicer? How do you like it? I have a steam juicer, but I notice the remaining pulp is very sweet after juicing my muscadines. I haven’t used it for aronia yet.
It’s an Omega, probably 8006. I don’t use it very often.
Omega J8006HDS Masticating Nutrition System Juicer – Omega Juicers
I was a bit surprised at how much sediment settled out of the aronia juice. I ran it through my finest mesh strainers, yet still…
The aronia bushes are setting a lot of flowers this year!
3 Likes
PICTURES!!! Some of my aronia from seed are over 2ft tall and I havent even planted them outside yet, crazy, they are going to need support for sure for a year or two.
2 Likes
when they are young the branches want to droop. a tomato cage will help. once they get a few years old , i pruned out all the weak wood and the new growth that came back is more erect and stronger.
2 Likes