wanted to make more black currant jam from my frozen berries. by mistake i grabbed a qt. bag each of aronia and black currants. they look the same frozen. so i just used half in half in a low sugar recipe. 2.5c of each, 2c sugar, pinch salt and 2 tbs. lemon juice. heated that on med until bubbling , mashed the berries then brought it to a hard boil for 10min. jarred and processed. its very good and no hint of astringency. a good way to stretch my b. currants. going to try this ratio for juice next. if you have both give it a try.
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Yep, Aronia just seem to make other juices better.
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Don’t overdue the recipes with to much aronia. Apple juice as I’ve mentioned cut 40 to 1 with aronia tastes a lot like concord grapes juice. It’s delicious unless we go overboard. Eating aronia or drinking the juice straight is to potent in my opinion. The tannins are very high in aronia.
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is too much tannins bad? ive never heard for or against. i dont eat alot of jam but like to break it up with peanut butter on my morning toast. if i need a sweet fix a teaspoon of jam does the trick.
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Tannins are very bitter and can only be tolerated in lower amounts.
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the ratio ive used in this recipe you dont get any bitterness at all. i read up on aronia. the only precautionary statement on its use is they arent sure what it would do consumed by a pregnant mother. other than that its all positive.
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My own experience is i can tolerate it for awhile before I can’t handle it anymore. It’s like coffee or soda or anything maybe your not thirsty or at some point caffeine can make you sick.
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like everything else in this world. too much of a good thing can become bad. i think a concoction i made of aronia/apple/ ginger juice that i gave a friend and her family that all came down with covid, helped them fight it off better. none of them got hospitalized or left with any side effects from the disease. even her 78 yr old father. i found that recipe on a native medicine site. they said it was good for fighting colds all the way to flus. ginger helps with the lungs. only other ingredient that i didnt have was elderberry so i just doubled the aronia. i trust the native remedies more than the pharmaceuticals.
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This is great news for me. I just planted a couple aronia bushes last week for the first time and was wondering what I would do with them. I’m embarrassed to say that after my daughter said she liked a frozen acai desert I added the aronia to an order on the spur of the moment, only vaguely recalling the name (acai vs aronia). I realized later, but figured I’d give it a try anyway…
Black currants make my favorite jam, but are a lot of trouble to pick (I’ve timed myself at 45 minutes per quart) and I lose some to the birds. From what I hear aronia are massively productive, so I have to imagine it will be quicker to pick, making it possible for me to make more “black currant-ish” jam with similar effort. At least, that is the hope from what you’ve said 
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my 2 aronia bushes are 8ft tall and wide in 4th leaf and ive gotten probably 35- 40lbs off them last summer. birds dont touch them. i dont fertilize, just mulch around them. very pretty in full bloom. branches are flexible like hazels so its very easy to pick them. i leave them on until they start to soften and stain your hands a little when picked. that’s when you know they’re at their sweetest. im anxious to try making b. currant/ aronia juice. be careful when you make it though. its stains EVERYTHING. had to bleach the counter after to get it off. i have viking and a polish variety. dont know how to pronounce or spell the name . starts with a g. its about 1/3 rd more productive than viking.
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35-40 pounds from 2 bushes in year 4 (or in any year really) is crazy. My best black currant harvest is probably about half of that from 8+ mature black currant bushes, a majority of which are 10+ years old (3 are only ~7 years old).
I got Viking and Nero. 8’ tall would be fine there, but 8’ wide might need a bit of pruning. I spaced them about 7’ apart, so they could form a hedge. Even if Nero isn’t as productive as the polish variety you have, it sounds like 2 bushes will be enough to match my black currant production.
You mentioned elderberries earlier and I am growing some of them as well. While birds also like them, they are pretty easy to grow. But, they are a pain to process, removing the tiny berries from the stems. I like them in jam (not as much as black currant), but they have a pretty distinctive flavor. I’ve mixed them with other things (I don’t recall which- maybe blackberries or currants) and the elderberry overpowered everything else.
If I had to rank fruit for jam, it would be:
Black currants
Sour cherries
Boysenberries
With elderberries being a distant 4th/5th, along with peaches (though they make very different jams).
And sour cherries mixed with boysenberries are great. I found a poorly labeled jar of that recently (I thought I had finished them all last year) and really enjoyed it.
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Aronia are super easy to pick and process compared to black currants, or pretty much any berry. It does sound like a much better filler than other things.
And my jam ranking may be:
black currant
honeyberry
raspberry
plum
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In excess, tannins can disrupt nutrient absorption in the body. In moderation they are very healthy. Tannin consumption also helps regulate loads of internal parasites in livestock and would presumably do the same in humans.
Tannin rich leaves are typically added to pickle ferments to keep cucumbers from getting mushy. Aronia fruit would likely work as an alternative to the tannic leaves.
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i gave some to the chics and they loved them. good to know its good to get rid of parasites. i guess they will get more in the future
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Specifically internal parasites of the digestive tract.
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well my sour cherries and honeyberries should give me a substantial crop this summer. i may try mixing juice from some of these as well. i have 14 black currents 4 tiben, 2 consort are producing but only 4 are mature bushes. 8 are just 2 years old so should start to have a few berries this summer. i wont have a shortage of b. currants very soon.
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I never get enough honeyberries past the birds to have a chance at making jam out of them.
And I don’t get enough raspberries past the kids 
What kind of plums do you find make good jam? Euros or Japanese (maybe Lavina) in general, or a specific kind?
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I have a Beauty plum tree at my mom’s house. Her friends rave about them, but I think they are useless for fresh eating. But they make delicious jam, the skins are super tart and impart a beautiful color. With sugar, its intensely sweet/tart and good.
I’ve also made jam with Nadia cherry plum, which was good, I don’t rave about it but apparently Vincent kids think its great.
I’ve made Mirabelle jam a couple of times. I used to think it was bland and didn’t understand why people say its good for jam. But this winter, after making buttermilk biscuits, I used the mirabelle jam on it and thought it was really good. Unlike the Beauty, it doesn’t smack you in the face, its smooth and subtle. It was great on buttered biscuits, and I think generally where I might consider using something sweet, but not sour, like honey.
I bet Italian prunes make great jam, I used to get sorbetto at the farmer’s market made with fresh Italian prunes and it was fantastic - and bright red.
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I would cut on the aronia not because of the tannins but once you get the flavor boost in the blend your wasting Aronia juice to use more after that.
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Same here. Only problem I’ve had is rabbits; they love munching on bark and young stems. Other than that, looks to be an absolutely care-free fruit bush. I had a pretty good crop last year. My brother ate a whole bunch of them out of hand; even took them to work to snack on! I didn’t like them that much—but really look forward to experimenting with processing them this year. I’ve got a few cuttings started in order to expand my planting of 3 (currently two Vikings, one Nero).
Bet that black currant-aronia jam is tasty! It seems like the best discoveries are often accidents.
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