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
4 Likes
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.
3 Likes
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.
2 Likes
So useful and educational, thank you!! 
2 Likes
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. 
5 Likes
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.
2 Likes
Try adding the aronia jam to apple sauce or butter. I love aronia, plan a bunch for wibe and adding to apple products.
3 Likes
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.
2 Likes
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.
1 Like
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.
4 Likes
Good to know…I’ve not tried cloning aronia.
2 Likes
ive given away 8 rooted plants so far that rooted when the branch touched the ground. very easy to root like elderberry or currants.
2 Likes
Sure! I tried before and may have gotten roots before the heat hit. I am doing everything early now, inside.
2 Likes
PM me your addy and when you want them and ll send them out.
2 Likes
I currently have only one seedling Aronia bush, from OIKOS; beat the birds to about 4 qts of berries this year. They’re small. I need to look into getting some of the ‘improved’ varieties, like MacKenzie, Viking, etc. (Did I read in a thread somewhere recently that those are, in fact, hybrids with Sorbus?)
Anyway, I make Aronia ‘brandy’, which I then dilute with blueberry 'brandy.
I freeze the berries, then put 2 qts of berries and a cup of sugar in a half-gallon canning jar, then fill with the cheapest vodka I can find, apply lid & ring, then allow them to steep, agitating the jar whenever I happen to think of it, for at least 3 months, then decant. I’ll usually do a second ‘extraction’ of the berries, and still get decent color and flavor/astringency.
I do the blueberries the same way, but with half the amount of sugar.
A 1:4 dilution of Aronia:Blueberry is plenty tasty, and has just enough ‘bite’ to suit me. Makes a very nice aperitif…
3 Likes
try adding a few cups of them when making apple wine. gives it get color and depth of taste. ive done black currant, sugar and bourbon. makes a tasty sipping whiskey.
1 Like
You think if I added Goji to some Kentucky Bourbon it’s cure my sniffle? 
Probably
ruin the
flavor of the
Bourbon, lol.
ive made a concoction of aronia, black currant, ginger and some honey. juiced berries and ginger in my euro juicer. put in a pot and added about a cup of honey. warmed until the honey melted. ive gave this to friends and family when they were sick and they got better quickly. sipping on it warmed helps with coughing/ sore throat. i could send you some but you would likely be better by time you got it anyway. i can cook it down slowly to a syurp which can be cut with water or taken like a cough syrup. let me know if you want to try it.
This year I had more berries but just didn’t find the time to pick and can them to use later when making applesauce. But after harvest time calmed down and it got colder I realized there were still quite a lot of berries on the bushes (some birds or critters do eat them but not significantly) so I picked them and just put them on a screen over our wood stove to dry, which they did fine. Now I just throw a handful in when I make applesauce, and also put a few berries in my herb teas. They may give more flavor or whatever fresh but this was so easy and convenient I’m sure I’ll do it again. Sue
3 Likes