Honeyberry and Aronia taste
Bradybb WA-Zone8
11 years ago
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northwoodswis4
11 years agomurkwell
11 years agoRelated Discussions
Anyone tasted Blue Velvet, Blue Moon or Blue Sky honeyberries?
Comments (4)mk I am in zone 5 in NE Ohio. I ordered 2 blue moon and 2 blue velvet from Burnt Ridge also. Beries Unlimited also have honeyberries. The reason I went with these two varieties is that they are late blooming some we could have some pollinators. I am curious about the taste of the honeyberry. I guess that we will have to wait a year or two to find out....See MoreHow to tell when aronia berries are ripe?
Comments (15)The first time I noticed the berries on my aronia bushes I went to Google to see if they were edible. Much to my amazement, it was called a superfood, so I decided to go out and pick them the next day and try making something with them. However, by the next morning every one was gone. Here in northern Wisconsin we have a lot of migrating birds and also black bears that could have been the culprit, so I am very nervous about letting the berries stay on the bush too long, but have succeeded in harvesting them in recent years. I too have searched for ways to make them taste good. I have made jams and pies and syrups, but none were particularly tasty. I've thrown a handful in to a smoothie, where the bitter taste is masked by other ingredients, but I just can't use that many in this way. This summer I was looking for a way to use the two gallons of berries I had in the freezer from last year and discovered that they make a wonderful shrub drink made with sweetened aronia juice and preserved with apple cider vinegar. A couple of ounces of shrub over ice with sparkling water and an orange slice garnish makes a delicious, adult-tasting drink. This season's berries are getting ready to pick and I can't wait to make a new batch. Donna...See MoreAronia as an hedge
Comments (8)djofnelson, I think there is a lot of merit to the idea that some of us literally taste things differently. That said, I think aronia does vary plant to plant and may depend on when they are picked or the weather. Last summer around this time, I tasted fresh aronia for the first time at the Home Orchard Society Arboretum. They had 3 or 4 seedlings. All of the berries were jet black and bursting with juice to the extent that they'd weep it from where the stem detached and stain my fingers. The berris from all of the plants were juicy and sweet. At least one of the 3 had little or no astringency (at least that I could detect after having eaten some astringent ones). I had come in prepared to find the berries bitter, astringent, and thinking they would be more dry like a cranberry so my expectations were pretty low. But I enjoyed them. The flavor was perhaps a bit mild for my taste, but otherwise I could envision myself eating a couple handfuls per outing. This year I went back to try them again and perhaps get some budwood from the best of the lot. Well, the season is about a month behind from last year for fruit in our area and the aronia was no exception. This time the fruit ranged from red to black with the stages in between. All of the berries were quite astringent, and some or all were bitter as well. They also weren't juicy. From that I concluded that either they become less astringent as they ripen, or that the growing conditions in a particular season may influence how astringent they are. From what I understand they hang on the bush for a very long time. If you haven't already you might try leaving them a month or so past seeming ripe and try them again. I haven't tried the straight aronia juice from Trader Joes, I'll have to remember to look for it again. What I do remember is having Aronia Juice Cocktail from Costco which I and my entire family compared favorably to Ocean Spray Cranberry Juice Cocktail. It was probably somewhere from 5-12% juice with a whole lot of sugar....See MoreHoneyberry (Lonicera kamchitaka) vs northeastern Lonicera dioca
Comments (1)They could hybridize, but only if they are close enough species, never tried either though....See MoreKonrad___far_north
11 years agomurkwell
11 years agoalexander3_gw
11 years agoglenn_10 zone 4b/5a NewBrunswick,Can.
11 years agolarry_gene
11 years agoBradybb WA-Zone8
11 years agoKonrad___far_north
11 years agoglenn_10 zone 4b/5a NewBrunswick,Can.
11 years agoKonrad___far_north
11 years agom c robinson
5 years agoKonrad..just outside of Edmonton Alberta
5 years agom c robinson
5 years ago
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