We are seeing more and more studies concerning Aronia Berries. We’re happy to share them with you. It’s crazy only 15 berries per day can be so valuable to our health!
Benefits of Using Aronia with Chemotherapy
Glucose Related Changed in Mice Given Aronia
Today we became official! We have become a licensed processing plant. What used to be our garage has been turned into a facility to process foods. We have plans to package and sell our certified organic Aronia Berries online, to customers, and stores. A Preview of our Label
Another step toward sharing these little purple gems with others!
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!
This week we’ve been trying something different, we’ve welcomed folks to our farm to pick their own berries. It has gone well. People enjoy knowing where their food comes from and how it is grown. So if you still would like to pick your own anti-oxidant powerhouse berries, call for directions and come pick your own before they are gone!
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We know how healthy blueberries are for us. The chart here shows the anti-oxidant score of Aronia, blueberries and other common fruits. This shows why we believe so strongly in Aronia.
When friends have asked what we grow, we tell them Aronia Berries and go on to explain the health benefits.
The article here does a much better job of explaining why the berries are considered a Super Fruit. The article also mentions several research studies which have been done to support the health claims.
In August 2015, we hosted the Warren County Farm Tour (WCFT) not knowing what to expect. It was an overwhelming success. We had anticipated 100-150 people and thought that would be a great turnout. Wow, did we underestimate the WCFT. We guesstimate 600-800 visitors came through our farm on a beautiful day last August.
In 2016, we are gearing up for round two of the WCFT which will be August 28, 2016, 11 AM to 6 PM. We are baking, mowing, baking, pulling weeds, baking, and preparing. We want to have lots of items available for the visitors to sample.
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
offer folks the opportunity to come pick their own superfood! We are anxious for folks to experience the health benefits of Aronia Berries.
We are hosting with the help of our friends: Larry & Jan Fife will have food with Aronia ingredients. Eric Shaffer will be here to discuss Shaffer Tactical, be sure to sign up for your CCW class with Eric. My sister and neice, Polly Thiel and Amanda Young will be here to aquaint visitors with their business, Paws at Home. Our daughter, Kristin, will be here acquainting folks with LuLaRoe and Scentsy. We will also have Ron Christensen displaying some of his historic machinery. There should be a little something for everyone.
Recently I had the opportunity to visit with Amy from Iowa Public Radio about Aronia. It was an interesting morning…Listen Here
It has been quite a while since I last posted. Between keeping up with grandchildren, grass and weeds, I don’t know what grows faster!
We tried something a bit different this year to keep weeds/grass down in the fields. Suppress herbicide is an OMRI approved burn-down product for grass and weeds in Organic operations. It worked well, but did not last the entire season. We will have to plan for more of it now that we have experimented with it. In the areas we sprayed, the weeds/grass are not as heavy. We continue to live and learn as we grow. So now we are out pulling, clipping, and trimming in the fields. We are “feeling” every single weed and our age. If we didn’t feel so strongly about the health benefits or organics and if I wasn’t so sensitive, believe me in the middle of a field at 93 degrees with a high heat index, it would be so tempting. But it won’t happen.
We are watching the berries begin to turn red and some purple and wondering about the timing this year. Things seem to be maturing earlier than usual by a couple of weeks.
This year we are hoping to have fresh berries on the bushes for the Warren County Farm Tour’s second year. We are hoping to have berries on the bushes for folks to pick their own, if Mother Nature cooperates. The WCFT last year brought between 600-800 folks to our farm to learn more about Aronia. We were overwhelmed. In preparation for this year, we are planning better and hoping August 28th is a beautiful day! We also hope folks come hungry, I’ve been baking Aronia breads, pies, and making jam/jellies.
As we sit here in Central Iowa and watch the weird weather, we are preparing for the coming year. The warm, warm late winter has encouraged the leaves to begin appearing on the Aronia plants. Yes, we all loved the warm weather and we were all outside, but we knew it was too early.
We’ve been learning about chilling units, chill hours, etc. The time the Aronia plants need to “sleep” in the winter. Seems like the magic number is somewhere around 1000-1200 hours and then buds begin to burst. The problem may be when this happens too early (like this year) we all hold our breath that a late freeze won’t ruin crop production by freezing off or frosting the precious flower buds which eventually become our crop. Maybe you have a fruit tree that the same thing happens too occasionally. Mother Nature is in charge!
We’re also preparing for the coming year in other ways. Planning for the Warren County Farm Tour begins in earnest tomorrow. Mark your calendars for August 28! We will be having a U-Pick operation here that day and hope many visitors will enjoy the berries, recipes and products we will have on hand.
So as we “weather” the cold tonight, we will still be thinking berries!