Or walk through the aisles and just listen to the birds chirp and the bees hum as they flit from place to place enjoying all the blossoms.
Watching that big, mean Rottweiler stop and smell the flowers is a real treat too. Although, I couldn’t get a really good picture of him this year! It’s just too funny watching him stop and sniff.
Right now when they are so pretty you can overlook all the grass that is trying to grow under the plants and just enjoy the beautiful miracle that is happening turning those tiny little plants we planted 10 years ago into the beautiful floral beauties and then a super nutritional berry right before our eyes. Isn’t the power of nature magical!
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.
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.
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 BushCicada 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
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.
One question we continually get asked when we tell people we’ve planted aronia berries is – what are they? It’s true, they’re not very common, yet. You don’t see them on the store shelves but once you do your homework, you’ll see why we’ve been interested.
They are very high anti-oxidant berries. Hardy little plants that grow to maturity and are relatively low maintenance. They are not terribly time sensitive when it comes to harvest time, unlike grapes. They are raised organically, which is extremely important to us with all my sensitivities. They are native to cold areas and will thrive in challenging soils. Boy, are we a testament to that.
This link provides more information on the berries: http://www.aroniaberry.org/
Fogles Organic Aronia Berries – A Homegrown Super Food!
Oh I wish you could smell these!
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.
