i only have 2 bushes but they are 8’ x 8’. one is viking and the other is a polish cultivar i dont remember the name. there was so much fruit on them they were weighed nearly to the ground. fed a constant diet of composted chic. manure. 
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One of the secrets to growing apples and pears is you can sweeten anything with them @PaulinKansas6b. Pears can be canned as pear sauce already pre sweetened. Pears make a puree not a juice unfortunately. Apples make the best juice. Apple juice I have used to can Pears or apples or anything else. Juiced the apples then canned whatever normally needed sweetened in the juice. Have canned blackberries and other summer berries in peach juice. Nature gives us everything we need. If you want higher alcohol honey is better than sugar to get there. Make sure it’s local honey not store bought as they add preservatives to their honey which will prevent fermentation. There was honey found in the Egyptian tombs thousands of years old that was still good and the stores are adding preservatives for some reason. My guess would be they add it to keep it liquid on the shelf longer without turning to sugar but I don’t know that for sure. Here is a simple recipe from How to Make Frozen Aronia Berry Wine | Omaha Magazine
How to Make Frozen Aronia Berry Wine
Nov 14, 2017 12:22PM ● By Patrick McGee
If you’re anything of a forager, after summer and fall, you have a freezer full of frozen berries. They can keep for a long time, and it’s easy to pick more than is necessary once you get into the bushes. Foraged berries are great. But when the next year rolls around, you need to make room. It’s time to use up those frozen berries.
Producing wine can use up quite a few. Frozen berries are easier to ferment because the freezing and thawing breaks down the cell walls of the fruit, making it easier to juice firmer berries. And just about everyone loves wine. It makes a great gift, and the wine will be done just in time for the holiday (if started far enough in advance in the fall). Clearing out your freezer will make room for fall berries, winter trout, and other game.
Personally, I had a freezer full of aronia berries from Kurt and Tina Geschwender, who live in Ponca Hills, and were gracious enough to let a friend and I pick their excess. The berries are firm and tart, a bit like cranberries, and are loaded with antioxidants. Because they are so sturdy, freezing helps to pulp them, lending to a better wine with less effort.
Finished aronia berry wine is crisp and dry with a beautiful dark maroon color. It retains the flavor of the berry.
The aronia berry wine is simple and uses the same equipment and basic knowledge discussed in my previous article “Foraging and Fermenting Wild American Grapes,” which can be found in the August 2016 issue of Omaha Magazine online. The same basic equipment used to make grape wine can be used for aronia berries.
It is essential to have a fermentation bucket, fermentation lock, and straining bag—all of which must be sanitized.
Plenty of berries, sugar, and other items are also necessary.
My recipe is modified from Winemaker’s Recipe Handbook’s cranberry recipe (the Blackberry recipe is also a solid option). The following makes one gallon of wine—or step up the quantities to make more:
- 3 pounds aronia berries
- 7 pints water (preferably not tap)
- 2.5 pounds sugar
- 0.5 teaspoon pectic enzyme
- 0.5 teaspoon yeast energizer
- 1 Campden tablet (crushed)
- 1 package wine yeast (EC-1118 yeast best tolerates the antioxidant-rich aronia berries)
Adding half a pint of red grape concentrate is preferable to some, but I like to let the aronia berries shine.
First, place washed, frozen berries in a straining bag in your fermenter. Mash and squeeze the thawing pulp in the fermenter. This would be difficult with fresh, firm berries. Tie the bag and leave it in the fermenter. Stir in all other ingredients except for yeast. Cover the fermenter. Twenty-four hours later, add the yeast and cover. Stir daily. When fermentation slows to a near standstill (after about five days), remove the straining bag and pulp. After about three more weeks, siphon the wine into a sanitized glass secondary fermenter. A hydrometer is useful for assessing the progress of fermentation. In about two months, if it is clear, bottle it.
A deep, red bottle of aronia berry wine is sure to be a memorable Christmas gift to anyone lucky enough to receive one. More importantly, there’s room in the freezer for that fall turkey.
See omahamagazine.com/articles/foraging-and-fermenting-wild-american-grapes for more information on basic winemaking with wild grapes. Visit fermenterssupply.com for more information.
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@clarkinks very interesting!! Another reason to grow “all the fruits”, one thing can complement another. I want to learn more about these native things and also native American methods like pemmican!
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One of my favorite things is to use foam off the apple cider on the oatmeal. That with some fresh real milk and cream is incredible. In the old days in this area everyone had dairy cows and usually for a few favors or barter the milk was easy to come by. The milk we get from the store has the cream skimmed off so it’s not the best. When it’s you doing the milking you can be the one who skims off the cream not them.
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Sounds amazing!!! Yeah we get some fresh raw milk from several folks around here! How amazing compared to that walmart stuff… The Brown Swiss milk is amazing…, better than Holstein… But the yellow Jersey milk is so good its like a dream so much flavor and cream better than any walmart ice cream even!! I for sure plan to get my own Jersey or Gournsey one day! The high yellow beta carotene content has to be good for ya 
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@PaulinKansas6b
Yes it’s very good for you! When you make cider you will get a lot of extra foam on top when you run it through a juicer. That foam is just as sweet as sugar but it can’t be left in the cider. Another thing I mentioned on this thread Hot weather is here! “You might as well make yogurt outside to go with the fruit that’s what I do. I boil the milk on the stove cool it down and dump in the cup of yogurt. I set the yogurt outside on a 100 degree day for 6-8 hours in the gallon pan . Once it’s turned to yogurt use the whey poored off the top in with other things. I love cooking outside like that. Mixed with your fresh fruit fresh yogurt is excellent!” . Another thing you can do is these days where it’s not hot enough I have sat my yogurt in the car which is about 10 degrees hotter or inside of something made of metal as it gets hot in there. Grab a carton of your favorite plain yogurt from the store to make the yogurt it’s very easy. In the winter they have yogurt makers. Once you make yogurt or cheese from your milk it keeps a long time. The whey you get from making yogurt is great on oatmeal as well . People pay good money for whey and yogurt. Aronia are harder to use with wine being one of the best ways.
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Steve, I had just a small harvest (bush only 2 yrs old) but I just cooked them for awhile, ran through a food mill, brought back to boil and sealed the sauce in hp jars. Then later when I made apple sauce I added a jar of the aronia sauce. It was quick and easy and added something (in addition to color!) without being up front. I liked the result. I plan to do that again. But when my bushes get to giving me as much as you have I think I’ll leave some for the birds! The wine sounds interesting though. And seems like it would make some attractive vinegar. Good luck! Sue
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birds dont touch them here. if unpicked they dehydrate into hard little aronia rocks. i just gave a couple pounds to my chics that fell on the ground. they love them. i have all the harvest in the garage freezer still in the 3 big bowls i harvested them in. been awhile since i made wine but ill probably try it. mixing them in applesauce sounds good also. one of the Alaska boys mentioned awhile back making trail mix bars with them. im hoping they see this thread and give me the recipe.
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Following up on my shrub post, since I am a great fan of shrubs (nothing more refreshing than shrub and sparkling water), recipe for any berry below. Of course aronia being a crunchy thing you want to steep it in vinegar longer than one day, or coarsely blend it with vinegar in a blender before steeping. Good also for seaberries, since you always get a lot of damaged berries. You can add honey, pears or apples to taste.
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So useful and educational, thank you!!
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Well, I made a jam out of them and that was a fail: good consistency, but terrible taste! I also used them in smoothies, but I didn’t like it.
But to be honest, as soon as I popped a few into my mouth, I was hooked! I For some reason, I found the astringency tolerable when eating them “au naturel”. My kids didn’t like them, but my husband did. I only have one bush (Viking). Very productive. Their texture is great: firm, but juicy. I love that they stay on the bush. So I can harvest a handful everyday for a month +. Bonus: lovely spring bloom and gorgeous fall colors. 
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I’m sure glad I didn’t plant more than I did and even those acres of berries are to many. They don’t get diseases and they don’t need sprayed but they are so concentrated they are hard to use. Some years I sell them all but not the last 2 years there has been no interest in aronia. The big juice companies are still importing them from overseas! Study the old orchard juice labels there is aronia in there Aronia Harvest . Your harvest looks great @jessica4b . We are one trick away from being millionaires from aronias! When we bite down on the berry it’s sweet at first the tannins don’t hit you at first. If we could seperate tannins from the aronia in a juicing process there would be arguments over who got the crop. It’s my belief it will be done someday. The aronia will be a focus for gmo scientists and they will do it eventually but I hope not I’m not a gmo fan at all. If the seed was fertile it’s likely I could breed the bitterness out of the berry using natural selection.
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Try adding the aronia jam to apple sauce or butter. I love aronia, plan a bunch for wibe and adding to apple products.
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ive tried them in jams and didnt care for it either. the juice mixed with apple is pretty good. i like them in yogurt. i plan to try them in a granola recipe. i heard from one of the Alaskan guys its good like that. i have Viking and Galicjanka. the last one is a polish cultivar that has a little bigger berry and is more productive. they grow to 12ft. here with 0 care or fertilizer. i mulched around them when they were younger. now they shade out the grass.
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Do you remember where you got the Galicjanka? I have found mostly Viking, some Nero, or seedlings. I wanted another variety for the third bush, and taller is good to block views.
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the place i got them from 5 yrs. ago is out of business but aronia roots very easy from cuttings and fruits in its 2nd year. do you want some cuttings Francine? have plenty as i have to prune these guys to control their width.
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Good to know…I’ve not tried cloning aronia.
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ive given away 8 rooted plants so far that rooted when the branch touched the ground. very easy to root like elderberry or currants.
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Sure! I tried before and may have gotten roots before the heat hit. I am doing everything early now, inside.
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PM me your addy and when you want them and ll send them out.
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