Most of the weekend we’ve been drenched in central Iowa. A washed out Labor Day weekend. So what do we do? Bake! I wish you could smell our house about now.
Folks are always asking me what we do with “those” berries. We get creative. We use them in chocolate chip cookies, apple pie, fudge, pancakes, beef stew, chili, meatballs and meatloaf, salads, pancakes, lemonade, muffins, banana bread, you name it, I try it. The recipe page includes some of our favorites. It includes the new one that’s in the oven.
The house smells amazing and it tastes just as good!
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.
I always forget to take pictures out in the Aronia berry fields during the winter months. It doesn’t seem possible this was just on Monday as we were going out for a walk and to do some sledding. We knew the snow wouldn’t last, but the fields are beautiful, no matter what season.
Odd title? You wouldn’t think so if you joined us the last few weeks in the field. You see after the 17-year Cicada damage we suffered in June 2014, you’d understand. Pruning is best done in December-March so the cuts can callous and harden off. On some of the warmer days we have been out cutting back bushes. It’s a cold, snowy field and the footing is a little slippery. Secondly, you have to bend down and inspect each branch and remember we have nearly 5,000 bushes, so it seems like it takes forever. We’re still not done, but we’ll get there a little at a time as the backs can handle it.
I say cussing because It makes you physically feel sick to cut off so much of some of the plants and know how you are cutting down on your yield for the upcoming year. You have that to deal with emotionally. I keep telling myself those damned Cicadas layed the eggs in the little branches and weakened the bushes now to the point that they will not support the weight of all the berries they will be having now and in the future. If the damage isn’t cut out now, they will suffer later. So I cut and cuss.
At the same time, I praise the quiet time alone in the woods and in the field. I am so thankful we are where we are and we have a hardy bush that will survive, thrive and be so strong and large in 17 years, the next Cicadas will not be able to damage them this way ever again. Thus, the life of a farmer.
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
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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.
