As summer seems to be slipping away, we see the season maturing right before our eyes. The acres of Aronia Berries we have planted have changed from the beautiful flowers to small green berries which are now beginning to grow and change colors. By the middle of August they will be such a dark purple, they will almost look black.
We recall the very first year we first saw them beginning to turn, it seemed like forever before they were ready. Our very first “drop in the bucket” harvest. We were so excited! We now appreciate the preparation time and don’t get quite as excited until the brix levels begin to truly rise. Honestly, we can almost tell from tasting them when the sugars are high enough to harvest. Some folks comment to us they’ve heard you can’t eat them off the bushes. You can and we do! We love handfuls out of the field as do our granddaughters. We have the cutest little purple hands and faces in late August!
Farming teaches us all many lessons. We know what it feels like to “lose it all” to frost and cicadas, to watch the weather and pray it doesn’t get so cold to damage beautiful blossoms or to hope the hail misses us. We’re learning to control what we can and trust God to take care of the rest. Right now we’ve wished last winter would have been a little colder to freeze out the plentiful, but pretty (according to little girls) Japanese Beetles who have made a home in one field, but life goes on. Some of the lessons include our entire family, today our six-year-old granddaughter says to me while playing out in a field, “Grandma do you hear that cicada? Oh no, the berries!” She was pretty small when the cicadas severely damaged our bushes, but she still remembers that sound. I had to reassure her the whole bunch of them wouldn’t be here this year, just a few. Thank goodness!
A few weeks ago when the Aronia berries were in full bloom, we decided to have a family photo taken. Our family has grown, as have the berries, since we first began blogging about our Aronia plantation.
Harvest 2016 was another learning experience at our farm. We harvested by hand, had help to hand-harvest, and hired a mechanical harvester. We appreciated the speed with which the harvester went through the fields. In one day, the harvester had picked all the berries above about 14″ from the ground. Not ideal, but certainly a huge help. We appreciated all those who helped with the 2016 harvest!
One of the things we learned was people wanted to learn more and pick berries. So if Mother Nature cooperates, we will have berries for the visitors to pick. We will be offering a U-Pick Operation prior to the event as well. As soon as the berries are available, we will advertise an