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cassy
Joined: 04 Feb 2008 Posts: 1047 Location: South West Scotland
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Posted: Mon Aug 23, 10 2:29 pm Post subject: in praise of chokeberries |
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I've just had our first harvest of chokeberries (Aronia spp.) and I'm very impressed with them. I have two bushes of Aronia x prunifolia 'Aron', one has been planted for two years and the second I only planted last winter. They are both about 1.5m tall.
They had lovely flowers in the spring, are nice healthy looking bushes with glossy green leaves and produced between them one and half pounds of fruit. I picked it a little under-ripe as the birds ate most of it last year and I wanted to beat them to it, but they were still edible raw; sort of like blackcurrants, a little tart, the sort of taste which would go well in a savoury salad rather than a fruit salad. The seeds were thin and easy to eat - much easier than a raspberry for example.
They were much easier to pick than blackcurrants as they were a larger fruit, came easily from the bush leaving the stalk behind and were firm, so could be dropped into the pail without squishing. As they are a taller bush, there was none of the stooping and crouching necessary for blackcurrant picking.
I made the whole lot into jam - it was very dark purple, almost black. I had to mash the fruit to get them to break up and they came apart like cherries - very dark skin and paler flesh. Although I left the seeds and skin in, there was nearly no scum to skim. It set very well and they could be useful to help set another fruit which contained less pectin The jam is very blackcurrant like. Next time I will try less sugar (I used blackcurrant proportions of sugar) to make a jelly to go with meat.
Although maybe not the tastiest fruit in the world, I'm impressed by how well they've done so far, how tough the plants are and how easy they were to pick and prepare and how easy they are to grow. I was going to say that they would not be your first choice if you are short of growing space, but they have do have spring interest, were covered in bees and seem to be tough as old boots, so maybe they deserve a place in more gardens after all.
More info -
PFAF - Aronia melanocarpa
PFAF - Aronia arbutifolia
PFAF - Aronia prunifolia
USA eXtension service
A.R.T. have a factsheet available. |
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lottie
Joined: 11 Aug 2005 Posts: 5059 Location: ceredigion
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mihto
Joined: 03 Feb 2008 Posts: 3273 Location: West coast of Norway
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Nick
Joined: 02 Nov 2004 Posts: 34535 Location: Hereford
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cassy
Joined: 04 Feb 2008 Posts: 1047 Location: South West Scotland
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yummersetter
Joined: 26 Jan 2008 Posts: 3241 Location: Somerset
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cassy
Joined: 04 Feb 2008 Posts: 1047 Location: South West Scotland
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yummersetter
Joined: 26 Jan 2008 Posts: 3241 Location: Somerset
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Posted: Wed Aug 25, 10 9:44 am Post subject: |
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Can I get back to you on that I keep changing my mind.
One blue honeysuckle on order, more from seed I guess, Myrtus Ugni and a collapsing pawpaw planted a few months back. There are a lot of amancheliers already in the white garden, I think they get raided by the blackbirds as an energy boost on their way to the strawberries as I see them set fruit and then they're gone when I think to look again. I've ordered shallon, that tastes lovely, but the soil here may not be acid enough.
One rainy evening I'll sit down with the Chiltern seeds catalogue and see what's on offer there.
Eleagnus is a bit over-happy here - I planted an ebbingei a few years ago, for its perfume in October and we cut it down as it had got to 5 metres cubed and we couldn't get to the shed, In six years it never flowered or fruited and it was a huge mound of darkness. Goumi would be perfect but I'd need to source or future order from ART.
I was sent a species 'stocktake' list of plants growing in the Forest Garden at Dartington, (not the sales nursery) there are 242 eleagnus plants there That would smother our entire village, I reckon, if planted here. And 1030 duchesnea indica last year; that'll be 5,000 by now, I guess. I wonder who counts them? |
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cassy
Joined: 04 Feb 2008 Posts: 1047 Location: South West Scotland
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Blue Peter
Joined: 21 Mar 2005 Posts: 2400 Location: Milton Keynes
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cassy
Joined: 04 Feb 2008 Posts: 1047 Location: South West Scotland
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Truffle
Joined: 07 Feb 2006 Posts: 526
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yummersetter
Joined: 26 Jan 2008 Posts: 3241 Location: Somerset
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cassy
Joined: 04 Feb 2008 Posts: 1047 Location: South West Scotland
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cassy
Joined: 04 Feb 2008 Posts: 1047 Location: South West Scotland
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