Aronia, Chokeberry, Chokecherry. Right!

The Aronia bushes are beautiful and prolific this year. I guess they have been for several years, but I have ignored them for the past two and Gary took care of them before that -- at least once they got their growing legs (or branches). For several years after Kyle planted them, it was a yearly battle with the deer. More often than not, the deer won and ate the fledgling branches nearly down to the ground; but time and an 8' net fence finally won. Now they are taller than I am and very leggy. They are probably too close together for optimum growth and production, but they are doing well, for all that. And, I suspect, they are much too woody to tempt the deer.

A couple of weeks ago, I decided that it was time to get at the berries, so I called Kyle to find out what to do with them, once picked. He did a bit of research and confirmed that we should steam juice them, as Gary has done in years past. I have never picked Aronia before, so was surprised to find that the berries didn't break away cleanly from the stems. In fact, they left a bit of the berry flesh at every juncture. I didn't mention that one of the values of Aronia is their strong, lasting dye. It is a rich purple! As I made my unsuspecting way, picking through the first bush, I was unwittingly spot dying my precious (and only) BYU t-shirt. (As soon as I discovered the impromptu dying project, I traded out the shirts; a good soaking and washing later and the BYU shirt was as good as new.) However, in time, I came to question whether the fruit was actually ripe. Usually nature has a way of cleanly severing the ties to the mother plant when the fruit is ripe and ready to launch on its own; this was definitely not the case with the berries I was picking. Nevertheless, I continued on, picking the entire first bush. Kyle had told me about cultivated bushes in Europe that would yield up to 37 pounds of fruit per bush. Naively I looked at ours and judged them to be loaded and well out-producing those European bushes. The first bush yield weighed in at 5 pounds 14.4 ounces; quite a bit short of the 37 pound goal. Only slightly chagrined, I started juicing them. Admittedly I was distracted during this process. (Wayne Secrist had come to mow our lawn; I chose to take that time for a weed-eater lesson -- and try to remember the juicer, as well. My way of remembering was to race upstairs to check if there was still enough water in the lower reservoir; if there was, I went back to weed-eating, if there wasn't, I simply added more.) That batch of berries must have steamed for two, three or more hours. The resulting juice (all 14 cups of it) was a beautiful color and slightly thick. It had a good taste, but there was an underlying "texture" of flavored paper. Somewhat disappointing.

A few days later I picked the second bush. There are a total of four bushes; three appear to be of the same variety, as they ripen about the same time and the berries have the same surface appearance. (Kyle did plant them in two different years, but doesn't remember which ones he planted when.) Their berries are a dark purple/black with a matte sheen. The fourth bush ripens somewhat later than the others and its berries, while the same color, are glossy. I hadn't paid enough attention to know if the other berries had been glossy previously and then become matte. Next year I will have more to look for.

Since picking the first batch of berries, I had been doing some internet reading and, among other things, learned that aronia is also known as chokeberry or chokecherry because the berries, straight off the bush, make you want to choke. I can attest to that; they are so dry and woody, for all of their good flavor. Another tidbit that I learned is that some people pick them by clipping of the clusters of berries. I tried that with this second bush. It made the outdoor picking go faster and made possible a little bit of help from Gary, getting the berries off the clusters. Although I am not sure that I would really need to remove them from the stems for steam juicing. I had also done some reading on steam juicers and recommended steaming time for various berries. It seems that 60 to 80 minutes should be sufficient for this type of berry. The yield of juice was predictably less, but more flavorful. There were six pounds 3.8 ounces of fruit and 11 cups of juice. A suggestion, from the internet, that the Aronia juice be cut half and half with apple juice and sweetened a bit has made it a wonderful breakfast drink. (Either that, or we are getting used to it.) Twenty cups are in the freezer, awaiting processing into jelly by one means or another; nearly the remaining five cups have been drunk up.

There are many health benefits ascribed to the berry, but I will save that for another time.

Power going underground -- at last!

For a year or more, Wayne Secrist has been talking about putting our electrical service underground. A month or so ago, things started happening: he would show up at our house with a lot of pipes, a 4x4 post, assorted other things. Then there were the hieroglyphics on the front lawn -- sign offs from the various utility companies for digging in that spot. Last Saturday (September 6th) Wayne and Zach Dahl came with a ditch digger and cut a deep, narrow trench from the power pole at the front corner of our lot to the back corner of the house and then at right angles, nearly to the basement wall. They encountered a problem when they ran into the sewer pipe out of the basement, but later patched it and all was good. They also ran another trench at the front of the house, off toward the porch; Charter is to use it to put that service underground, as well. They laid pipe in the trench and then covered it all in, except at the ends. I don't know if there is wire in the pipes yet or if that is to come later. As I understand it, they have gone as far as they can. The next step has to be taken by a licensed electrician; he has come by and looked at everything, but we still have the exterior wiring. He will be responsible for hooking up a new meter base (to be placed on the aforementioned 4x4 at the back corner of the house) and wiring it in into the house. I don't know if he does the PUD end, as well, or not. When he has done his work, he will switch over the power and then we can take all of the wiring off the outside of the house. Wayne recommends that we leave the current meter base (non-functioning) so as to not leave a hole in the siding that is currently there. When we can afford to side that portion, the metter base can go. I'll put in some pictures that, hopefully, will illustrate the electrical work and clarify the part of the house that will get sided in the next week or two. We will also be replacing the two side playroom windows and, hopefully, insulating that wall. More on that as it begins to happen.