Search...
Home Subscribe
Pie
Home Subscribe
Recent topics Flagged topics Hot topics Best topics
Search...
Search within cooking Search permies
Advance search Google search
Register / Login
rocket mass heater dvd
  • Post Reply Bookmark Topic Watch Topic
  • New Topic
permaculture forums growies critters building homesteading energy monies kitchen purity ungarbage community wilderness fiber arts art permaculture artisans regional education skip experiences global resources cider press projects digital market permies.com pie forums private forums all forums
Green Living Book permaculture singles Free heat movie permaculture bootcamp design Sepp Holzer Desert or Paradise Documentary
this forum made possible by our volunteer staff, including ...
master stewards:
  • Carla Burke
  • John F Dean
  • r ransom
  • Nancy Reading
  • Timothy Norton
  • Jay Angler
stewards:
  • paul wheaton
  • Pearl Sutton
  • Eric Hanson
master gardeners:
  • Christopher Weeks
  • M Ljin
gardeners:
  • thomas rubino
  • Megan Palmer
  • Benjamin Dinkel

Best use for aronia or choke berries?

 
Becky Stapf
Posts: 1
posted 5 years ago
  • Likes 2
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
    Send
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
What is the best way to preserve aronia (choke berries)? Dry the berries or make ticture? I have only one bush.  Thank you,  Becky
 
David Huang
gardener
Posts: 1330
761
9
I like...
hugelkultur monies foraging trees composting toilet cooking bike solar wood heat rocket stoves ungarbage
posted 5 years ago
  • Likes 2
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
    Send
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
My understanding of aronia is that the severe astringency of them (thus the choke berry name) is due to the pulp of the berries.  This is why they are so often used for juice where that astringent pulp is removed.  If I were looking to preserve them I might be inclined to try juicing them and then boiling down the juice into a more concentrated form.  I will admit I haven't tried this myself though.

You are welcome to check out my blog at http://www.theartisthomestead.com or my artwork at http://www.davidhuang.org

 
Mike Haasl
steward
Posts: 16050
Location: Northern WI (zone 4)
5146
8
I like...
hunting trees books food preservation solar woodworking
posted 5 years ago
  • Likes 3
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
    Send
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
You'll get a lot of berries off of one bush once they are mature.  I need more uses for them myself.  I love aronia jelly.  I have my first batch of aronia wine sitting in a carboy that I need to rack into bottles and try.  This year I'll probably have 10 gallons of berries to preserve and unless some good ideas pop up in this thread, I'll probably juice them somehow and freeze them.  Then I'll defrost a jar at a time, keep it in the fridge and use it to add healthiness to other berry concoctions.

I make a Maple Syrup instructional movie! Check it out HERE
SKIP books, get 'em while they're hot!!! Skills to Inherit Property
See me in a movie building a massive wood staircase:Low Tech Lab Movie

 
Anne Pratt
pollinator
Posts: 431
Location: Hudson Valley, New York, USA
137
I like...
hugelkultur dog forest garden fungi foraging books chicken cooking medical herbs homestead
posted 5 years ago
  • Likes 3
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
    Send
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Becky - Welcome to Permies!  That's cool that you're growing aronia.  And are they growing in a food forest?  

We're happy to have you!  

P. S.  I know nothing about preserving aronia, or I would have tried to respond to your actual question.  

. . . bathes in wood chips . . .

 
James Landreth
gardener
Posts: 1180
Location: Western Washington
343
I like...
duck forest garden personal care rabbit bee homestead
posted 5 years ago
  • Likes 3
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
    Send
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I hear they are good in muffins and baked goods in general. Also, some cultivars are vastly sweeter than others.

One strategy a friend taught me is to use fruit like aronia and bosc pear as the filler in pie (since they're not very flavorful). Then use other fruit to provide flavor (blackberries, strawberries, blueberries, currants, more flavorful pears and apples)

When you reach your lowest point, you are open to the greatest change.
-Avatar Aang

 
Eric Thompson
pollinator
Posts: 508
Location: Longview, WA - USA
68
7
I like...
cattle forest garden trees earthworks food preservation
posted 5 years ago
  • Likes 2
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
    Send
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
We have lots of these every year and they are a mainstay in preserves sweetened with plum or apple cider.

I also have them mixed into the vinegar we make and they are great!
 
S Bengi
pollinator
Posts: 3829
Location: Massachusetts, Zone:6/7 AHS:4 GDD:3000 Rainfall:48in even Soil:SandyLoam pH6 Flat
559
2
I like...
forest garden solar
posted 5 years ago
  • Likes 1
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
    Send
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
It sounds like juicing/filtering, then adding sugar is the starting point, followed by one of the following
1) Boiling to turn it into a syrup/jelly
2) Fermenting it to alcohol
3) Fermenting it to vinegar
4) Fermenting it to aronia kefir soda
5) Freezing it for months
6) Chilling it for a few days

A mixture with a high alcohol content can also be used to preserve it too, either completely fresh or first reduced by boiling.

Dehydration and then rehydrating as they are added to salads, baked goods, pancake, a bit in some beetroot soup.

Maybe make a fruit leather?
Like lime or ginger this will need other fruits and or sugar in the mix to be consumed in bulk

Iterations are fine, we don't have to be perfect
My 2nd Location:Florida HardinessZone:10 AHS:10 GDD:8500 Rainfall:2in/mth winter, 8in/mth summer, Soil:Sand pH8 Flat

 
Bill Kansan
Posts: 1
Location: Northeast Kansas
posted 5 years ago
  • Likes 2
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
    Send
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I sure would like to give you the harvest from my four bushes.  I'm too lazy or too busy to deal with them after taking a stab making something with them last year. Even the birds won't touch them.  Pretty bushes, though.  I planted them in a period when I was laying out my garden/orchard using a lot of unusual plants I learned about here and elsewhere such as honey berries and goji and hardy kiwi. The aronia and goji make the cut, but certainly not for palatability.

Compulsively composting as always

 
Janet Reed
pollinator
Posts: 343
Location: Dry mountains Eastern WA
79
posted 5 years ago
  • Likes 2
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
    Send
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I juiced my choke cherries in a steam juicer and made juice that I turned into shrub...yum yum.  When I’m felling like it I add a shot of vodka and sparkling water or tonic.
 
John Weiland
pollinator
Posts: 2769
Location: RRV of da Nort, USA
840
posted 5 years ago
  • Likes 5
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
    Send
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator

Bill Kansan wrote: Even the birds won't touch them.  



This fact alone makes them rise to the top of the list of my favorite berries on the property.  The Juneberries typically are cleaned out by the waxwings and robins in short order, even when still pre-ripe.  But the Aronias just sit there happy as can be until harvest time.  They are most suited for jams or items which are sugared, but a great berry for our region.

“The most important decision we make is whether we believe we live in a friendly or hostile universe.”― Albert Einstein

 
Mike Haasl
steward
Posts: 16050
Location: Northern WI (zone 4)
5146
8
I like...
hunting trees books food preservation solar woodworking
posted 5 years ago
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
    Send
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Janet, did you mean choke berries?  This thread is about choke berries (aronia), not choke cherries.  

I make a Maple Syrup instructional movie! Check it out HERE
SKIP books, get 'em while they're hot!!! Skills to Inherit Property
See me in a movie building a massive wood staircase:Low Tech Lab Movie

 
Larisa Walk
pollinator
Posts: 390
Location: South of Winona, Minnesota
96
posted 5 years ago
  • Likes 3
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
    Send
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
You're right about the taste being nasty, until they're cooked. We steam juice them and bottle the juice, later serving it "watered down" with apple cider or pear juice. We dehydrate the leftover berry pulp from steam juicing, still quite intact as individual fruits. The dried berries are good added into baked goods. Birds don't mess with aronia berries, other than the occasional robin sampling early ripening fruits, after which they leave them alone. But Japanese beetles will eat the leaves.
 
uli hamann
Posts: 1
posted 5 years ago
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
    Send
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Ok I have tons of aronia berries,they are terrific producers. I have only dried them in the past. This year I will do tha again except i will make an oxymel with two pint jars half full of berries. The top half will be 3/4 honey and one quarter apple cider vinegar. Mixed thoroughly and left to its own devices for a month, then strained and into the fridge. Aronia are really high in antioxidants so 1 tablespoon every morning. My first time so will see how it turns out. By the way I have some connoisseurs robins that try to beat me to the harvest every year.
 
Timothy Norton
Steward of piddlers
Posts: 6958
Location: Upstate New York, Zone 5b, 43 inch Avg. Rainfall
3621
I like...
monies home care dog fungi trees chicken food preservation cooking building composting homestead
posted 2 years ago
  • Likes 2
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
    Send
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
My intent is going to be harvesting the juice of the black chokeberry. I figure I can learn how to make different drinks/teas from it.

I wonder if poultry can/will eat Aronia?

- Tim's Homestead Journal - Purchase a copy of Building a Better World in Your Backyard - Purchase 6 Decks of Permaculture Cards -
- Purchase 12x Decks of Permaculture Cards - Purchase a copy of the SKIP Book - Purchase 12x copies of Building a Better World in your Backyard

 
greg mosser
gardener
Posts: 1824
Location: the mountains of katuah, southern appalachia
595
I like...
forest garden trees foraging chicken food preservation wood heat
posted 2 years ago
  • Likes 2
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
    Send
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
chickens will definitely and happily eat aronia berries.
 
please buy this thing and then I get a fat cut of the action:
Learn Permaculture through a little hard work
https://wheaton-labs.com/bootcamp
reply
reply
    Bookmark Topic Watch Topic
  • New Topic
Boost this thread!
Similar Threads
More...