What a better way to spend a frigid afternoon than catching up on a few things… It’s good Aronia Berries need a cold season. We’re sure getting it now!
After a long fall and exciting preparation for the holidays, things are finally settling down a bit and I can once again re-focus. We’ve been busy making White Chocolate Aronia Fudge, Strawberry Aronia Fruit Spread all fall. We hope those who received some as Christmas gifts thoroughly enjoyed theirs! We’re always looking for new ways to use Aronia and trying to expand our market, and acquaint folks with the powerful purple berries!
We even spent a little time away from the farm in southwest Florida for the holidays with family and shared information about Aronia with folks at farmers’ markets there! It was fun, they were sharing information about a fruit juice full of anti-oxidants and how good anti-oxidants were for you. We told them we knew a little something about that! Because Aronia is a “super food” with their high ORAC score.
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.
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.
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.
Fogles Organic Aronia Berries – A Homegrown Super Food!
