I got black nebula and cosmic purple from Ohio Heirloom. We’ll see how it goes.
2 Likes
going to grow some purple cabbage to make some sauerkraut with. 
2 Likes
grew a purple heirloom from bakers last summer. was very good.
2 Likes
I think everything that is ‘healthy’ tastes bad. lol. I see on your charts that blackberries are 2X - 3X less healthy than the bad tasting berries…but personally i can eat 4X more blackberries. So am i healthier because i can eat more blackberries?
At what point of sugar or honey addition do Elder and Aronia ‘taste’ as good as blackberries? Adding sugar isnt a good thing if one is trying to be healthy. I know alot of people say that the Elder and Aronia jellies are great but there again is the addition of sugar.
There is something that your charts do not talk about on the Elderberry and that is the flowers. Maybe the flowers are the healthiest part of all?
If you read online about the health benefits of Elderberry flowers it dang near cures or helps everything. The average person is never going to eat flowers of anything so its a moot point as far as marketing. I cant imagine trying to sell flowers to eat at a farmers market.
Here are some more facts for thought-
In one placebo-controlled, double-blind study conducted by Israeli virologist Dr. Madeleine Mumcuoglu, 93.3 percent of people taking an elderberry preparation reported significant improvement in influenza symptoms within two days of starting it, compared with the six days it took for the placebo group to see improvement.
Researchers also have found that people who have taken elderberries have higher levels of antibodies against the influenza virus, demonstrating that the berry may treat flu symptoms and prevent influenza infection. (Roschek, 2009)
2 Likes
We eat tons of blueberries & blackberries.
Son gave me a purple sweet potato last spring… bet that thing threw over 100 slips, and almost every one of them grew and produced… I ended up with six 27-gal totes full of purple SPs… doubt that we’ll get through them all before they start sprouting.
I have one little seedling Aronia that made its first crop last year. I make a ‘brandy’ with the berries… essentially a vodka extraction… 1/2 gallon Aronia berries in a large canning jar, 1/2 cup sugar, fill with cheapest vodka I can find, let sit 3 months or so, agitating occasionally. I mix the Aronia ‘brandy’ 1:1 with blueberry ‘brandy’… by itself, the Aronia brandy is more astringent than I care for.
I’ll usually do at least one additional vodka extraction on the Aronia berries, topping the jar off with whatever amount of fresh frozen blueberries it takes to fill it. Still get plenty of color and flavor from that second extraction.
1 Like
Sometime about 1968 I started buying “Royal Burgundy” bush beans…and since I’ve tried most purple stuff. Purple cabbage, kale, kohlrabi, okra, carrots…etc.
The red fleshed apples are getting a bunch of my attention these days.
2 Likes
i dont care for the astringency of aronia and i have 20lbs of them frozen in the garage. i try to add them to other better tasting berries but cant find a way to enjoy them strait up. last spring my chics got most of them from the previous fall. im guessing / hoping they passed those nutrients and anthocyanins back to us through their eggs. if nothing else they were real healthy for awhile. at least they didnt go to waste. nice thing about hens, you can recycle things you dont care for or leftovers, through them and get something back.
4 Likes
I like wild native elderberries. The berries are too bitter raw so don’t worry about being poisonous. Otherwise mild to severe stomack irritstion will occur. Jam or jellies are boiled so this is not an issue. The difference is in straining the seed.
I have seen a 12×12 foot shrub loaded with blossoms everywhere. On drier ground. In my zone 3 northern wisconsin land in wet areas, the plants are never as big. Never prune. Snow, deer. And elk do the work
2 Likes
Just cook the Elderberries like everyone has for thousands of years. Clearly the medicinal properties are not being cooked away.
Many foods btw are more nutritious cooked. Carrots for example only 25% of beta-carotene is available in raw form while 100% is available when cooked. the Vitamin A also rises from 113 RDA to 148 RDA per cup when cooked. Beans, all most all of them especially the kidney bean family are downright toxic unless cooked. Eating Raw Kidney Beans Can Be Toxic • AnswerLine • Iowa State University Extension and Outreach (iastate.edu)
Dont eat Raw muchrooms even common white button mushrooms because they contain mycotoxins till cooked
Toxins in Raw Mushrooms? | NutritionFacts.org
Modern sweet corn aside a diet of corn that has not been Alkali processed (Nixtamalization) with lime will lead to vitamin b deficiency’s The History of Corn & Vitamin B Deficiency (Pellagra) — Cooking God’s Way (cookinggodsway.com)
3 Likes
I have Blueberry, Raspberry and a few other syrups along with Aronia syrup. A little syrup, vodka and sparkling water. Whenever I add Aronia syrup it tastes more like a good sparkling wine then blueberry or raspberry. Aronia just adds that thing other berries lack that makes them wine like on there own.
2 Likes
ill try to make the syrup. what ratio of sugar do you use? add lemon?
I bought the bottle of syrup.
But if I was to make the syrup myself this is what I would do.
You just want to replace the water in simple syrup with juice. The ratio is 1 part juice to 1 part sugar. There is enough acid in juice you do not need to add any for the conversion process. But some syrups are just better with acid like Watermelon needs malic acid and Elderflower needs citric acid or limon juice.
The juice should be concentrated to the point 1 part syrup + 5 parts water tastes good.
Aronia is peaty robust on its own so I would start with 1 cup of undiluted juice 1 cup of sugar, boil to inverted then test 1oz of syrup with 5 oz of sparkling water. In the case of Aronia its not going to be delicious but at least palatable. Then try .5oz of aronia syrup with .5oz of any other syrup and the 5oz of sparkling water and see how it tastes. if its too week concentrate the juice
1 Like
It looks as if 2022 will be a ‘Trend’ year for Elderberries.
I saw pictures on social media of these box stores selling live plants-
Costco, Home Depot and Lowes
2 Likes
It’s been building for a while Sambucus gummies have been a thing for at least 2-3 years. Pawpaw has been trending to but the trees take a lot longer to produce the Elderberry
My parents discouraged foraging elderberries. But, fall 1999 there being a heavy crop and the birds not getting them for some reason, I got to make and thoroughly enjoy jelly from Elderberries. Superb.
3 Likes
Ok, I just got back from samling this 100% Aronia berry wine and it was down right delicious. It was tart so there might have been some added acid. Had some good tannin content. It was really good. I think 80% aronia and something milder would well balanced.
2 Likes
I have had the Manischewitz elderberry of course. but its just so sweet. Its good but very port sweet.
1 Like
i made a couple gallons of apple wine and added some aronia to it. it was very good. i need to make more.