Didn’t take any photos but this guy’s farm likely has 300 bushes currently, probably more than that I don’t know. He has a couple high school kids picking them and he picks as well. We talked about machine harvest, the whole works was discussed. Bottom line is without thousands of shrubs there isn’t money in it.
From what I was told his spacing between rows of 10 feet is two feet short of the requirements for mechanical harvesting. And all the picking we did while talking didn’t amount to much weight. If I were to guess we probably picked 8 or 10 pounds while chatting and that’s with four of us in two hours time.
For individuals to pick at his farm he charges 2$ per pound. What he picks goes into a freezer and he sells 5# for $3.50, 4# for 3$ I think… 1 pound for something like $3.00 or 2# for $2.50
There’s a craze that’s erupted over these berries and I can’t for the life of me see the value in farming them.
Dax,
Vikings aronia are much better than wild aronia. They are like acai which are very healthy but not tasty fresh. If you mix them 1 part aronia to 40 parts apple juice you’ll see the value! If you want to get your antioxidant level up and color blended juice which is mostly just apple what better way to do it? The lowest price I got this year was $3.50 per pound and that was for an individual looking at buying 500# minimums. There are people selling for $7 per pound in my area. Individuals are buying wholesale from me at $5 per pound and selling for $7 per pound. When someone buys juice shots at $5 each there is likely 1/8 of a thimble of aronia juice in with apple juice if that. Think how much profit they make buying wholesale and they are local berries!
That makes more sense, Clark. At the some moment I am wondering how you harvest; space between rows; how many plants you have; how many pounds you can produce per season; and how large of a refrigeration unit you may have and what it costs to keep those frozen?
This guy said the amount of shrubs he has also wouldn’t be economical for people who apparently run around the country with the machinery to harvest plantings. I’m also wondering how much a Viking aronia plant costs and after all being said when the first dollar of profit is returned. This last question has a lot of different factors of course…
Do any farmers juice them and sell the juice instead of the berries?
I just think of so many different ways to make money on any given site. Maybe (I don’t know) 15-years of planted Walnut trees on the same acreage could give a much more huge profit… an apple orchard I don’t know. You see where I’m going.
Dax,
I’m expecting around 1000 pounds of berries off 3 acres but I may not get them all picked. My upland berries make 1-2 pounds of berries per bush and my lowland berries make 20 pounds per bush. It’s all about the water which they love. My berries will get a heavy mulch and hopefully compost or manure this winter in preparation for next spring. A good bush I was told by my grower when he was still alive would yield 100 pounds. They grow much better in wetter places like iowa. I bought mine in bulk for a few dollars per liner plant. If you want starts let me know and I will send you unrooted cuttings.
clark i would be interested in some cuttings when you prune next spring. a friend has a few acres he’s letting me plant. i want to do elderberry, aronia, raspberries and hazels. the spots along a lowland brook so plenty of water. what cultivars you growing? you plant your cuttings direct in the field or in pots? i know elderberry are easy to root right in the field. i have 2 bushes i can get some cuttings when i prune but i need more. trying to sell some at a couple local markets just on a smaller scale.
You’re a kind man. I’m going to pass. If the adjoining land to me ever goes for sale I’m going to snatch it up and split it with my neighbor. That would give us each 12 acres and double what I have now. Then, I’ll consider something like this. It’s kind of you to offer.
i have a Viking and Galicjanka which is a polish cultivar that is similar in size to Viking but supposedly more even ripening. berries are same size/ flavor.
Sounds like picking is your bottleneck. Have you thought about picking on shares? Offer a portion of what they pick to the picker. Or pick all day, get so much to take home.
I’ve done this for a vineyard and a blueberry farm. The vineyard had a small amount of Viogner, not enough to call in a full crew but enough to harvest. I knew the owner, took a day off work and got 10 gallons of pressed must!
The blueberry farm let you keep 1/3 of what you picked for free. They packaged up the remainder for sale.
Course, it all depends on finding the right people.
I know there are machine harvesters for both currant and aronia, but sounds like clarkinks is too big to hand pick, but too small for his own harvester. This year at least. Grow, Clark, grow!
Blueberrythrill,
Initially he wanted 30# to see what kind of wine he can make as a trial. He wants other fruits I grow as well. They are easy to pick if you walk up and put a 5 gallon bucket under the branch and then run your fingers over the clusters of berries a few times and they all fall off in the bucket. I really would love to use a blueberry picker on these but I can’t justify the expense. It’s really monotonous.
MrsG,
Seems like everyone uses the same types of blueberry harvesters.
KYWeaver,
Your right I’m not big enough yet and yet as you said to big at times.
Aronia is one of the best berries to feed egg laying chickens, i feed it to my hens at 4% so if i got 100 lbs. of feed 4 pounds of dried Aronia, if fresh berries then 10%. it really a great heath boost to the birds. Perhaps drying them and selling them to the feed store as chicken treats for extra money, i know the hens go crazy over the fresh Aronia and like the dried berries too, but they go mad over fresh…
They should add honeyberry to the list! I did some searching and it looks like honeyberry comes in about 13,500 on the ORAC chart, pretty good but not as good as aronia evidently.
One thing I’ve noticed about aronia is that it grows really well in pots, even with only a few hours of sun per day. It fruits for me in 1 gallon pots before I get around to planting them out. It’s also tolerant of wet soil, but surprisingly doesn’t require much water in a pot.