Aronia Melanocarpa, the hidden gem of the Eastern United States

Aronia melanocarpa,
• Called the black chokeberry, is a species of deciduous shrub in the rose family native to eastern North America. The shrub is graced with abundant beautiful white flowers for a few weeks in May. Its vase-like shape with slender, multiple stems and reddish-brown bark spreads slowly to form a thicket, providing desirable shelter for a variety of birds. Glossy, dark green foliage turns to a striking autumn leaf color ranging from orange to burgundy in fall. Only one plant is required for abundant fruiting. Flat-topped clusters of white, five-petaled flowers with pink anthers are followed by persistent, blackish-purple berries. In spring, returning birds feast on the fruits that persist through the winter. Though extremely tart and very astringent off the bush, the fruit may be used to make tasty jams and jellies, and even dried whole to be used in pemican or as an herbal supplement. The common name, Chokeberry, references its tart and bitter berries that are so astringent they may cause choking.
• Native Distribution: Nf. to MN, s. to GA mts., TN & AR
Native Habitat: Lowlands; bogs; dunes; bluffs
• Description: Propagate by seed or softwood cuttings. Softwood cuttings root without hormone treatment.
o Seed Treatment: 120 days of cold-moist stratification will break seed dormancy.
• Aronia berries are low in calories but pack a nutritional punch, as they’re high in fiber, vitamin C, and manganese.
• Just 1 ounce (28 grams) of aronia berries provides the following nutrients:
o calories: 13
o protein: .4 grams
o fat: 0.1 grams
o carbs: 2.7 grams
o fiber: 1.5 grams
o vitamin C: 10% of the Daily Value (DV)
o manganese: 9% of the DV
o vitamin K: 5% of the DV
• The berries also supply folate, iron, and vitamins A and E.
• Plus, they’re an excellent source of beneficial antioxidants, which help protect your cells from free radicals. Aronia berries are particularly high in anthocyanins, which give the berries their dark blue to black color
• Aronia berries are an excellent source of polyphenols, which is a group of antioxidants that includes phenolic acids, anthocyanins and flavanols.
• Studies indicate that the antioxidants in the berries may inhibit free radical activity. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21214419/
• The berries themselves have shown superior antioxidant activity compared with four other berries (elderberry, blueberry, currant, gooseberry) https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15612766/
• What’s more another study that collected blood samples from 30 healthy people found that extracts from aronia berries significantly reduced oxidative stress caused by an antipsychotic medication within 24 hours. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25061527/
• Studies have linked the antioxidants in these fruits to other impressive health benefits, such as decreased inflammation, as well as reduced bacterial and colon cancer cell growth. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24317526/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/14690795/

This perennial is perfect for the edible forest gardener and I don't feel like it quite gets the recognition it deserves. Below you can find a video linked to my edible polyculture highlighting the aronia melanocarpa.


Happy growing!

Huge fan of aronia here.

In addition to the above, I'd add it freezes really well, and it's excellent in smoothies (it will turn even the most disgusting brownest smoothie purple) and in simple syrups (which we blend with sparkling water as a non-alcoholic treat). I have to try to macerate them for a liquor this year.

Birds leave the fruit alone unless they are desperate in the dead of winter, the plants are not prone to diseases or pests, are very prolific and the fruits have a large harvesting window (but are sweeter after the first frost).

Plus, it's both a beautiful shrub in the spring and fall, and it can make a very nice low-maintenance free-form hedge.

There's nothing not to like about it, apart from their very tart taste fresh off the bush.

I don't know whether my Aronia berries taste different to those grown in other climates, but if you live in a cool summer area like me I wouldn't be put off growing the plant because the taste is described as astringent or bitter. The Aronia Melanocarpa I grew from seed started fruiting two years ago, and I'm hoping to get a moderate crop this year from a number of bushes. In my limited experience the berries are not unpleasant at all. I would describe it as a cross between a cranberry and a raspberry. Maybe not something you would eat in quantity, but certainly very pleasant to munch on. They do ripen one at a time in the cluster, so it takes a while to be able to pick them all. I'm not sure who ate the majority of my berries last year (it wasn't me!) I suspect mice, but it may have been birds.
I was so impressed by the fruit that I went to the expense of getting an improved cultivar : Viking, which apparently has larger, more prolific berries than average. This has set one cluser in it's first year, so I'll see if it is better than my seedlings.
My soil is unimproved, acidic, salt rainwashed, and my climate is cool and damp (nothing like it's native NE USA). The bushes are definitly self fertile (I only had one bush flower up to now) and they spread by suckering, which is good for propagation, less good if you want to keep them contained longer term. The flowers and ripe fruit are attractive and the scarlet of the autumn (fall) leaves (even in a cool autumn like I have) is stunning. It appears to grow very easily from seed (if I can do it anyone can) and fruits within a few years, so the opportunities of selecting for improved fruit is good.

Im waiting for mine to grow big enough to collect a ton of berries. I planted around 30 plants this year. Got my wife to try the berries at my sister's house, but those are so astringent that you dont even taste a flavor, your mouth just feels dry. She was not a fan, but im sure mixed in a smoothie, i could hide the astringent effects.

Nameko mushrooms form a symbiotic relationship with aronia plants. Accelerated plant growth, heavy fruiting, and you have an edible mushroom for soups.

Kena Landry wrote:Huge fan of aronia here.

In addition to the above, I'd add it freezes really well, and it's excellent in smoothies (it will turn even the most disgusting brownest smoothie purple) and in simple syrups (which we blend with sparkling water as a non-alcoholic treat)..

I'll have to give them a try in smoothies as we are huge smoothie fans at my house.

I added them to a blackberry pie the first summer mine fruited and my kids were not a fan though they will eat them fresh off the bush.

Nancy Reading wrote:
I was so impressed by the fruit that I went to the expense of getting an improved cultivar : Viking, which apparently has larger, more prolific berries than average. This has set one cluser in it's first year, so I'll see if it is better than my seedlings.

My one and only bush is a Viking. I haven't tried any other ones. The Viking does taste a little astringent but also very sweet. At first we thought they were inedible but then learned from the nursery that we need to wait until the branches are drooping and almost dragging on the ground and it's getting cold out! They start to look and feel ripe in August but we don't eat them until late October.

Jenny Wright wrote:They start to look and feel ripe in August but we don't eat them until late October.

I somehow feel there would be none left on the bush by October! - the birds almost stripped one bush quite early. I have picked a small bowl (mine still have a few to ripen, but I'll eave the rest for the birds. I've got enough for a crumble or sponge pudding, the first time having them cooked. I find them perfectly nice raw once plump and black, as stated above. They stain my fingers when picking, although it doesn't last long.
I wasn't super impressed with the Viking fruit compared to my other fruiting bushes. Admittedly it is just a twig and produced just one small bunch of berries, but they were no bigger or better than my other fruit. Of course my seeds could have come from an already improved form.

Does anyone have a better name than Aronia for the bushes? What are the native American/First people's names for them? I believe they were dried in 'pemmican' (I think I read somewhere that the antioxidant properties helped in the preservation of meats). I just don't like 'chokeberry' as a name it seems so unfitting, and Aronia seems like a garden shrub, rather than a useful edible.

Both wild plums and aronia did good this year, so in addition to straight aronia jam, will be making a plum-aronia combination.  As an aside, only if we wait until very late do we have to worry about birds with these berries. That is in great contrast to our Juneberries which disappear to waxwings and robins in short order if not projected by bird netting.  The last berry of the year picked is a nannyberry, which tastes rather prune-like.  Good when mixed with crabapple to make nanny-apple jam.  Loved seeing all of the wonderful chutney recipes above!  Question:  Any lazy-man tips or tricks for getting 'hotdog relish-sized' pickle/veggie/fruit pieces with something other than a knife and cutting board?  Thanks!

Edit:  Doh!....Chutneys/pickles were in a different thread...my bad! :-)

Nancy Reading wrote:Does anyone have a better name than Aronia for the bushes? What are the native American/First people's names for them? I believe they were dried in 'pemmican' (I think I read somewhere that the antioxidant properties helped in the preservation of meats). I just don't like 'chokeberry' as a name it seems so unfitting, and Aronia seems like a garden shrub, rather than a useful edible.

As far as I can tell, black chokeberry fruit are called nîki’mînûn or sakwako’mînûn (Potawatomi language) by the Indigenous Neshnabé People (of the Council of Three Fires, with the Ojibway and Odawa Peoples) of Turtle Island.  Apparently, one traditional use is a tea for the treatment of colds?

Ac Baker wrote:
As far as I can tell, black chokeberry fruit are called nîki’mînûn or sakwako’mînûn (Potawatomi language) by the Indigenous Neshnabé People (of the Council of Three Fires, with the Ojibway and Odawa Peoples) of Turtle Island.  

Thanks AC!
Hmm, doesn't exactly roll off the Anglic Tongue....

They're supposed to be very high in antioxidants, and Vitamin C, so would be pretty good at boosting the immune system to help fight off viruses.

What's happening! I just had chokeberry for my smoothies and oatmeal previously. I only brought the frozen ones from the store. I'm looking to grow some from seed and how I grow some from indoors? And did the Potawatomi use them for food and medicine centuries ago?

i have 4yr old viking and galicjanka  aronias. they are planted on the edge of my leachfield and top out at 10' tall. they were so laden with berries the branches were laying nearly to the ground. a few broke in a windstorm. i got 62lbs off both bushes and still have 1 heavily laden branch to go back and pick. when they turn a liitle soft once hit with frost thats when i pick them. i mix them 50/50 with black currant in a jam and dehydrate many to make granola bars. great with yogurt and oatmeal as well. last years berries were used to make aronia/ apple wine which was fabulous. going to make a syrup concentrate to help fight colds over winter.

I thought my berries were almost ripe (the birds are certainly starting to think so!) so I was looking up potential recipes. I found this thread which has some potential jam recipes, but the discussion there suggests that the berries should be left until all the berries on the bush turn deep black, probably another month...I'm thinking if I try and leave it that long I won't get many berries myself.

They do look tempting.

birds dont touch them here. i let them hang until you get some juice on your hands when picking them. they are at their best then.

Well the birds have stripped my earliest ripening bush and have also had almost all the berries off my 'Viking' cultivar. They have also started on the best bearing bush this year, which is a little way further down the hill, so I have taken the decision to pick a batch of berries. I have left a few bunches and the ones that are not very black. From the one bush and a few from the adjacent bush I picked about 3kg of fruit in about 20 minutes.
It's due to be wet today, so a good day for jam making, so that's my plan for the majority of the berries. I made some of the ripest into juice - tart and refreshing and not needing any more sweetening to my taste. That means I have plenty for seeds now to propagate from :) and to pass on if anyone would like any. I put some more of the ripest into a punnet to give to the chef at our local high end restaurant, as I'm not sure if he has come accross them and may want to experiment (I could maybe sell some next year if he likes them and I get a load). Then I've got enough to make a good batch of jam, which is something we use a lot of.

I was told that the aronia needs to get a freeze to get rid of most of the tartness, and if berries are being munched away by birds before the ”natural” freeze I should just pick them and stick them to the freezer before doing anything with them.

Our one and only aronia bush looks amazing at the moment, I’m hoping to get some harvest this yes! Last year we didn’t get any.

I was also told that cold pressed aronia juice is delicious! I’m going to try that one.

I would say the juice is easy to make and very nutritious. A little goes a long way. It doesn't need extra sugar, it's not as astringent as the fruit, but can take a bit of diluting. Use apple juice to dilute with if you want it sweeter. The remaining pulp has lots of the nutrients in - the skins are packed with phytonutrients and can apparently be dried to make a tea.
I dried some whole berries in my lower (cool) oven. Maybe I over dried them, they are a bit crunchy now, but could probably be used in baking. The jam I made has turned out OK. Next time I will use less water and less sugar since it has turned out a bit insipid. Whilst it was cooking I took some of the jam out and used it as a sauce on our rice pudding and IT WAS DELICIOUS!!! (emphasis intended) it was quite honestly the most gorgeous tasting fruit I can remember having, like the full taste of cherries, plums, strawberries, raspberries all in one fruit. So I was a bit disappointed how bland the finished jam turned out. Obviously something is lost in the final boiling, so minimum cooking is the rule next time. Don't get me wrong, it was still a very nice jam, but not the "blow my socks off" flavour I was sort of expecting.
I may still have enough berries on the bushes to get another small batch if the birds permit, but I'm certainly going to propagate some more of my best bushes and maybe some more from seed. If I can get enough dotted round the field, maybe the birds will leave some more for me.

What's up folks! I had aronia in my smoothies and tasted very smooth with banana. I only found the frozen ones from Whole Food recently.

Nancy Reading wrote:I would say the juice is easy to make and very nutritious. A little goes a long way. It doesn't need extra sugar, it's not as astringent as the fruit, but can take a bit of diluting. Use apple juice to dilute with if you want it sweeter. The remaining pulp has lots of the nutrients in - the skins are packed with phytonutrients and can apparently be dried to make a tea.
I dried some whole berries in my lower (cool) oven. Maybe I over dried them, they are a bit crunchy now, but could probably be used in baking. The jam I made has turned out OK. Next time I will use less water and less sugar since it has turned out a bit insipid. Whilst it was cooking I took some of the jam out and used it as a sauce on our rice pudding and IT WAS DELICIOUS!!! (emphasis intended) it was quite honestly the most gorgeous tasting fruit I can remember having, like the full taste of cherries, plums, strawberries, raspberries all in one fruit. So I was a bit disappointed how bland the finished jam turned out. Obviously something is lost in the final boiling, so minimum cooking is the rule next time. Don't get me wrong, it was still a very nice jam, but not the "blow my socks off" flavour I was sort of expecting.
I may still have enough berries on the bushes to get another small batch if the birds permit, but I'm certainly going to propagate some more of my best bushes and maybe some more from seed. If I can get enough dotted round the field, maybe the birds will leave some more for me.

try using black currants 50-50 with aronia. makes a great jam. i make freezer jams.  birds dont touch aronia here. ive even left some on the bushes over winter for them. they just dried up.

Could currents help sweeten the taste with chokeberry and help make the flavor less sour and tart?

Blake Lenoir wrote: Could currents help sweeten the taste with chokeberry and help make the flavor less sour and tart?

yes. just follow any black currant jam recipe and replace half with aronia. also, aronia used with dairy will remove astringency.

Nick Kitchener wrote:Nameko mushrooms form a symbiotic relationship with aronia plants.

Nick, can you say more about this? Googling around didn't turn anything up for me. I have a couple of aronia plants with 'donuts' of wood chips around them that nameko might like.

Where could we find wild frozen currents to help our chokeberries taste better in smoothies, yoghurts and stuff?

Hi Nancy, can you give some tips on how you juiced your berries please?

Blake Lenoir wrote: Where could we find wild frozen currents to help our chokeberries taste better in smoothies, yoghurts and stuff?

hard to find in the U.S. very easy to grow from cuttings. stick cutting in ground were you want it in fall just before the ground freezes, leaving 1 bud above ground. bury thickly in mulch. come spring remove mulch to 1in. around cutting . almost always will grow. sometimes getting some fruit by year 2.

Chris Whitehouse wrote:Hi Nancy, can you give some tips on how you juiced your berries please?

Sorry Chris - just saw this.
I juiced them by just squeezing some in my hand! They are soft and pulpy but it was quite easy to retain most of the dry matter and let the juice run between my fingers (lovely purple staining!).
I wanted to use most of them for jam, so only wanted a small amount of juice to try. For larger amounts a cheese press with a butter muslin would be pretty easy I guess. I do have a hand crank juicer and was going to have a go with that with the berries I left on the bushes, however, the flavour didn't seem to improve for me. I think my climate is too damp and we still have not turned frosty (not till end of November usually) so the berries were rotting rather than drying. I have mashed them and have plenty of seed now if anyone would like some!