Aronia (black chokeberries)

What an unfortunate name for a pretty easy and useful fruit - "Chokeberry". From that name you might think they'd be awful to eat or even poisonous maybe, but in reality they're actually not too bad. Truth is they aren't very juicy and they are not too sweet either, but they certainly don't deserve to be associated with choking. LOL

 Please forgive my terrible photography skills... above is one ripe fruit cluster. Below are the washed fruits from today's pickings. This is the first year they've fruited enough to bother with and the bushes are still only knee high at best.

 

 Below are the berries being softened by boiling with a small amount of water. We smashed them with the masher and then strained the highly pigmented juice through a strainer. All that pigment is supposed to be anthocyanins (think antioxidant).

 

 Followed a simple recipe for sorbet and made this tasty batch from about 3/4 aronia juice and 1/4 wild blackberry juice. Nobody's choked on it yet. ;0)