Tag Archives: aronia berry

health, Uncategorized

Meet the Fogle’s in the Field

IMG_9765_smallIMG_9846_smallA 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.

Those three little beauties in the top picture love to help Grandpa and Grandma.  Anytime they hear that mower turn on, the oldest ones know it’s time for a ride.  Sometimes we even hitch up a utility trailer and go for “wagon rides”.  The beautiful blonde was pictured helping plant berries when she was a toddler.  Now she’s nearing 7 and can explain all about Aronia berries.  The middle one would just as soon have a handful of purple and a stained face about harvest time.  She loves eating right off the bush, as does Abe, our Rottweiler.  Aggie, his little sidekick, hasn’t had the chance to enjoy Aronia except in dog treats.   Abe and Aggie are our “critter control”.  The whole family has helped plant berries and we rely on our son’s horticulture degree and farming experience for advice and muscle from time to time.

We recall the days spent planting those little 4″ twigs and wishing and wondering how they’d grow.  Now look at the beautiful bushes over 6′ tall in some areas.  As you walk between the rows, it’s like being in another place.  They are truly a beautiful addition to our property.  We wish you could have seen the beautiful flowers and smelled the aroma of Aronia in bloom along with us that evening.   Now we tend, wait, and watch for late August and a bumper crop of berries.

 

 

food, health

Aronia Berries Available in Stores

Earlier this month we placed Fogle’s Aronia Berries in several local grocery stores.  We are so excited to be able to make these healthy berries more accessible.  We’ve enjoyed greeting folks and talking Aronia at local stores as we share how tasty they can be.  So if you’re checking out our page here, we welcome you!  We hope you’ll investigate for yourself the benefits of Aronia, check out our Recipes page, and learn more about our favorite superfood.file-feb-21-5-21-12-pm

health, Uncategorized

Another Aronia Berry Hurdle Cleared

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!

 

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Excited and Maybe Crazy?

Woody and I have made a commitment to be a part of the 2015 Warren County Farm Tour.  We are excited, a little anxious about the preparation and timing though.  We finish co-chairing the Midwest Aronia Association’s Iowa State Fair booth in the Ag Building on the 23rd of August and will host the Farm Tour on August 30.  Sometime around there we will be harvesting as well.  Crazy?  Maybe, but we feel strongly folks need to know about the benefits of the Aronia berry.  There is all kinds of research being done on how to use these very-high antioxidant berries.  The article below explains a little bit about the excitement.

Aronia (aka Chokeberries) – the Next Super food for Athletes?

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What a Summer!

We had such high hopes for our crop this year and were so excited for the changes we were making to our farm.  Yet another lesson in patience.

We ordered our Weed Badger in early April and hoped to be ready to till around the plants in May.  I should never have trusted and sold the little riding mower that went between the small plants.  The weed badger showed up last week!  But it is going to be awesome.  We need some practice with it, but it will do the job, we’re just set back a year.

On June 17th while mowing we noticed all kinds of damaged to the berry bushes.  We couldn’t decide if the heavy winds the night before had damaged our plants or just what had happened.  Turns out it was the 17-year cicada emergence.  They really did a number on us.  The females bury their eggs into the small stems of plants.  Well our place is very wooded and was 17 years ago too, so we had a terrible infestation.  It was like walking on crunchy shells everywhere in our fields.  Turns out they were a problem.  We had lots of branches die and many more erupted and weakened so they did not support all the berry production.  Our crop suffered dramatically and probably will next year too.  We’re thankful it’s only every 17 years!

Cicada Damaged Bush
Cicada Damaged Bush
Cicada Damaged Branch
Cicada Damaged Branch

June 16th our Horizon Building arrived after a LOT of dirt work that was done, thanks to our son.   The wonderful Amish crew had the building up in a week, mostly.  It rained and rained all summer and the inside was muddy, our granddaughter loved mud stomping inside!  The floor was finally poured (in the rain) August 27th.  But we have a place to put all the equipment for winter storage and it’s wonderful.

Mudstomping Inside the Building
Mudstomping Inside the Building

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Through all the rain, weeds, and cicada damage, we’ve been so impressed at how hardy these plants are.  Plants we put in the ground two years ago have really thrived despite the conditions they had to deal with this year.  That field was neglected this summer with all the rain and the lack of a good way to mow between the plants and the cicada damage as well, but they look really good.

We keep believing the plants will be able to produce a nice crop for us.  We have had friends with excellent yields.  Meanwhile, we keep finding new ways to enjoy them.

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More Excited Than Ever!

Woody and I recently returned from the 2014 Midwest Aronia Association Conference.  We were thrilled to meet other growers of this super fruit and learn more about its cultivation and potential.

We know we are on the right path when we heard business folks and physicians talk about the health potential of these powerful purple super berries.

Understanding Antioxidants & ORAC values

The Aroniaberry contains a powerful natural blend of polyphenolic antioxidants. Antioxidants are important because they combat free radicals in our body that are created from daily living, stress, environmental pollution, medical x-rays and even exercise. Free radicals can damage cells which can lead to health and wellness related issues. Consuming foods high in antioxidants like the Aroniaberry may help support the body’s defense against these radicals.

Antioxidant levels in foods are measured by a test called ORAC (Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity ).  Scientists have found that antioxidants increase our bodies natural defense systems. The higher the ORAC, the higher the antioxidant activity. (Wu, Beecher et al. 2004) The graph shows the ORAC levels (expressed as µmol Trolox Equivalents per 100 g fresh fruit of a variety of different fruits, including Aroniaberries. USDA 2010).

We all know how they have promoted blueberries and how good they are for you.  Well, our little berries score almost twice as good on the ORAC scale.  It’s exciting…the big challenge is educating people that aronia berries are becoming available, how healthy they are, and how to use them.  Because for those of you who have tried them, they aren’t as sweet as a blueberry or strawberry, they have a little more of the tart tannin flavor.  But they can be wonderful too.  Check out some of the recipes and look for food products at Hy-Vee.

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Aronia Recipies

We are asked quite often, especially now that we have berries, “What do you do with them?”  

Some of our favorite things are: 

Banana Aronia Bread

1 Cup Sugar

1/2 Cup Shortening

2 Eggs 

1/2 Cup Aronia Berries

2 Cups Flour

1 tsp. Baking Soda

4 Mashed Bananas

1/4 cup chopped pecans (optional)

Mix ingredients together.  Bake in greased loaf pan (or make into muffins).  Bread bakes 1 hour at 325.

We even have a special “granddaughter” who won a blue ribbon with this recipie at the Warren County Fair.  

 

Oatmeal Aronia Drop Cookies

 2 Cups Oatmeal

2 Cups Flour

1 Cup Sugar

1/2 tsp. Salt

1 tsp. Cinnamon

1 Cup melted shortening

1 Cup Aronia Berries 

1 tsp Baking Soda dissolved in 4 Tbsp Milk

2 Eggs

Mix dry ingredients.  To the dry ingredients add the shortening, eggs, and soda/milk mixture.  Mix well.  Fold in berries.  Drop onto ungreased cookie sheet.  Bake at 325 for 10-12 minutes.

This recipe makes dark kind of ugly cookies but wow they taste extraordinary, our son loves them!

 

All Fruit Smoothie

1/4 Cup Orange Juice

1 Cup Peaches, Drained

2 Medium Bananas, in chunks

1/2 Cup Frozen Aronia Berries

Put ingredients in a blender in this order. Blend until the drink is smooth.  Delicious!

 

Also try adding to your salads, favorite smoothies, vinaigrette dressings, pancakes, marinades, BBQs, soups, lemonade, ice tea, or make a syrupy icing and use over cakes.   Be creative, there are many uses for this healthy, versatile little purple gem.

 

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Berries, Berries, Berries

In 2012 the late spring frost diminished what we thought we might harvest.  In 2013, we have more berries and look forward to the berry production increasing every year.  We have about 5,000 plants now which have been planted over the past 3-4 years.  We currently have around 200 plants that may produce this year.   Each plant has been raised organically, as is our yard, because of my sensitivities.   We will be organic certified next season.

We are excited to share some of the photos of the plants this year and the changes from the archived photos to these current ones.  If you go back through the blog you will notice the same trees in the background, just the plants are bigger.  It is our way of scrapbooking the growth of the plants.  I’ve also included a photo of the spring-flowering bush, the flowers were in full bloom the weekend of May 17th, it was quite a sight.  We were filled with anticipation.

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Our Final Field #4

We worked all year long it seemed to get to the point last fall where we were ready to add our final three acres.  We cleared a field that had been alfalfa at one time, but you’d never know it in the last 15 years since we’ve owned it.  It was full of Cedar trees, wild roses, scrub trees, raspberry bushes, brush and grass.  But with a lot of hard work and the help of rented equipment it is now probably our best aronia berry field.

In September 2012 we planted 1,800 aronia berry bushes (Viking variety) with the help of our church’s ASP (Appalachian Service Project) volunteers.  We couldn’t have done it in half a day without their tremendous help.  We would have killed ourselves trying to do it!  We had the holes drilled with the help of a Dingo, and the planting went smoothly.  Of course, it was still the drought year so we watered and watered after planting the bushes.  We watered with two lawn tractors and tanks.  It took us eight hours watering together to get through the field.  We kept it up and kept it up until it finally rained and cooled down.  Thank goodness we have a pond nearby to draw from and the Honda pump could fill up the tanks and keep us on the move.  Talk about loving up on those little plants, when spring 2013 came, we lost fewer than a dozen!  We were thankful and amazed.  They truly are hardy plants.  Although, the soil in this field is the best on our whole property, we are expecting this field to be our best producer in the long run.

This year we have continued to water, fertilize with fish emulsion and Chickity Doo Doo mow, mow, mow and pull weeds.  We are thankful too for the electric fencing!  We didn’t have to replant hardly any and think it has really helped.  Although we do fix it a lot!  Those deer are stubborn.

Current look at Field 4
Current look at Field 4

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