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cmmwiebe

Aronia melanocarpa 'Autumn Magic' harvest

cmmwiebe
12 years ago

Today I picked about 3l of berries from my 3 plants. I have never been able to pick berries as there did not seem to be enough quantity. They smelled very nice as we boiled them to extract juice. Tomorrow the juice will go into jelly! Autumn Magic has a good sized fruit and is easy to pick.

From August Flowers and such 2011

From August Flowers and such 2011

From August Flowers and such 2011

From August Flowers and such 2011

The proof will be in the tasting of course.

Anyone else growing them for jam or jelly?

Clayton

Comments (3)

  • don555
    12 years ago

    Cool. I'd never even heard of these before. Let us know how the juice/jelly taste.

  • Konrad___far_north
    12 years ago

    Looking good!...Same here, never heard of these, apparently
    very high in antioxidant. How would you compare these to other fruits,..is it similar to chokecherries? How are the seeds, large, small? Taste?

  • cmmwiebe
    Original Author
    12 years ago

    So the verdict is that this particular variety produces a nice size berry, easy to pick because they appear in umbels much like highbush cranberry. Berries are just under 1/2 inch on this variety (I have Autumn Flame as well and those berries are smaller)
    The jelly is great but since we did not have a lot to trial I would cut back on the sugar. Seeds did not seem any worse than saskatoons in the berries I put in my mouth. Maybe better. Not a strong flavour but I think it is good. Some of our berries were just on the edge of drying out so if you could keep them evenly watered till you picked I think they would be a great plant. They are an ornamental but since the fruit is so easy to pick and has good flavour I would say this one could be a good orchard addition. May be hard to come by but I am going to try to propagate hardwood cuttings and then some softwood in spring. I will try to follow up then. You will see the juice in blends in the grocery store.

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