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Aronia Berries (Aronia melanocarpa), also called Black Chokeberry, are a tart, deeply pigmented native North American fruit that has gained worldwide attention as one of the most antioxidant-rich foods on the planet. The shrubs grow wild across eastern North America and are also commonly planted in landscapes, parks, and permaculture orchards. The berries earned their unfortunate “chokeberry” name from the puckering astringency of the raw fruit, but they’re not toxic. They become a delicious cooked ingredient in juices, jellies, wines, syrups, and the famous Polish chokeberry pudding (kisiel).
Learn how to identify aronia berries, distinguish them from the unrelated chokecherry (which is a different plant entirely), and use the antioxidant-packed fruit in your kitchen and herbal practice.
Table of Contents
- Notes from My Homestead
- What Are Aronia Berries?
- Are Aronia Berries Edible?
- Aronia Medicinal Benefits
- Where to Find Aronia Berries
- When to Find Aronia Berries
- How to Identify Aronia Berries
- Aronia Berry Look-Alikes
- How to Harvest Aronia Berries
- Ways to Use Aronia Berries
- Aronia Berry FAQs
- Wild Fruit Foraging Guides
Several species of Aronia berries are cultivated and marketed as superfoods, but their wild cousins are out there free for the taking. Black Chokeberry (Aronia melanocarpa) is native to the eastern half of the US and Canada (range map here), and though the name sounds similar to chokecherry, they’re completely different plants. (More on that distinction below; it’s the single biggest source of confusion around aronia.)
In urban areas, aronia is common in landscape plantings, and our local Trader Joe’s grows in ditches throughout the parking lot. The shrubs produce beautiful flowers in the spring, and the berries are just ripening in the early fall as the foliage puts on a beautiful show.
I’d never heard of Aronia until I spotted a few plants at a local permaculture nursery that carries more exotic edible plants. The tag said “beautiful native shrub with edible berries, a good choice for wet soils.”
Much of our land is wet, and I’m always looking to supplement our permaculture plantings with edible fruit. Once I’d had the chance to watch my plantings for a full year, I started seeing black chokeberry bushes everywhere!
That goes to show you, if you really want to learn to identify a new wild edible, just try growing it. You’ll have a chance to watch it throughout the seasons, which makes it a lot easier to spot in the wild.
Notes from My Homestead
Once I planted aronia in our permaculture orchard about a decade ago, I started noticing wild stands of it all along the river that runs near our property. The shrubs love the wet feet that nothing else in our orchard tolerates well, and they form thick patches along stream banks where they spread by root suckers into colonies of dozens of plants. Once you’ve trained your eye to the glossy dark green leaves and the flat-topped white spring flower clusters, aronia becomes very easy to spot. The fall color alone (deep crimson and orange) makes the shrubs stand out from a distance even after the berries have been stripped by birds.
For our family, aronia goes mostly into wine and juice each fall, since the raw berries are too astringent to eat by the handful. We make a couple of gallons of aronia wine each year that ages beautifully and develops a flavor reminiscent of port, and the juice gets blended with sweeter fruit like apples and grapes for breakfast smoothies through the winter. The kids actually love aronia juice once it’s mixed with sweeter fruit, and the deep purple color makes everything look festive. The stained hands are a fall tradition at this point.
What Are Aronia Berries?
Aronia berries, also called Black Chokeberry (Aronia melanocarpa), are the fruit of a perennial deciduous shrub in the Rose family (Rosaceae). The genus contains three closely related species: Black Chokeberry (Aronia melanocarpa) with dark purple-black fruit, Red Chokeberry (Aronia arbutifolia) with bright red fruit, and Purple Chokeberry (Aronia prunifolia), which is a natural hybrid of the first two with darker red to purple fruit. The black-fruited species is the most widely consumed and the one most commonly called “aronia berry” in commercial contexts.
The genus is native to eastern North America, with all three species growing wild from Newfoundland west to Ontario and south as far as Arkansas and Georgia. Black Chokeberry has also naturalized in parts of Europe (especially Eastern Europe, Scandinavia, and Russia) and Eastern Asia, where it’s now cultivated commercially as a superfood crop.
The plant goes by several common names: Black Chokeberry, Black-Berried Aronia, Aronia, and (in older or European literature) Aronia Berry or Black Aronia. The genus name Aronia comes from the Greek word for the related Sorbus genus (mountain ash). The “chokeberry” common name refers to the puckering astringent quality of the raw fruit, which makes you want to spit it out, not because the berries are toxic.
Chokecherry vs. Chokeberry: What’s the Difference?
This is the single most common point of confusion around aronia, and the names sound nearly identical, so the confusion is understandable. Chokecherry and Chokeberry are completely different plants in different genera, with very different fruit structures and uses:
- Chokecherry (Prunus virginiana) is a member of the cherry/plum family. It grows as a small tree (15 to 30 feet tall), produces drooping elongated flower clusters in spring, and bears small dark cherry-like fruit. Each chokecherry contains a single hard pit (like any cherry). The pits, leaves, and bark contain cyanogenic compounds that can be toxic in quantity, though the cooked flesh is widely used for jelly, syrup, and wine.
- Chokeberry (Aronia spp.), the subject of this guide, is in the rose family alongside apples and roses. It grows as a multi-stemmed shrub (3 to 8 feet tall), produces flat-topped clusters of white flowers in spring, and bears small dark or red fruits that resemble blueberries more than cherries. Each chokeberry contains 1 to 5 small soft seeds (not a single hard pit). All parts are non-toxic, though the raw fruit is intensely astringent.
The easiest field distinction: chokecherries grow on a tree with cherry-like elongated flower clusters, and the fruit hangs in long droopy bunches. Chokeberries grow on a shrub with rounded flat-topped flower clusters, and the fruit grows in tighter rounded clusters. The fruit interior is even more diagnostic: cut one open. Chokecherry has a single large hard pit; chokeberry has multiple small soft seeds set in jelly-like flesh.
Are Aronia Berries Edible?
Yes, aronia berries are edible and not poisonous despite the alarming “chokeberry” name. The berries are intensely tart and astringent when eaten raw, with a puckering mouthfeel that gave the plant its common name. The astringency comes from high levels of tannins, which dissipate substantially when the berries are cooked, fermented, or sweetened. Most foragers find aronia berries unpleasant raw but excellent in cooked preparations, juice, wine, jam, jelly, and syrup.
The berries are widely sold commercially in Eastern Europe (especially Poland, Russia, and the Czech Republic), where they have a long culinary tradition in jellies, juices, syrups, and the famous chokeberry pudding called kisiel. The fruit is also commonly dried and powdered for use in supplements, smoothie powders, and “superfood” capsules.
There isn’t much information available on the edibility of the leaves and flowers, so at this point it’s probably best just to harvest the berries. (Some readers have reported eating the leaves raw without ill effects, but I’d be cautious without more documented herbal precedent.)
Be aware that the fruit has a rich purple juice that will stain your hands (like elderberries), and the juice is even used as a natural dye source. You may end up with purple hands, but it’s worth it.
Aronia Medicinal Benefits
Native Americans were the first people to explore the benefits of Aronia berries. The berries were an important food source, and they also used them to make tea for treating colds. They also used the bark as an astringent herb.
Today, Aronia remains a surprisingly popular herbal remedy and is widely studied for its bioactive compounds. In clinical studies, aronia juice, extracts, and vitamin supplements display antioxidative, anti-inflammatory, hypotensive, antiviral, anticancer, antiplatelet, antidiabetic, and antiatherosclerotic activities. The berries are also exceptionally high in vitamin C, fiber, and anthocyanins (the dark pigments that give them their characteristic deep purple color). Aronia is one of the most antioxidant-dense foods studied, with ORAC values significantly higher than blueberries, cranberries, or pomegranates.
One particular study examined aronia’s ability to prevent recurring UTIs. The study found that long-term consumption of black chokeberry juice reduced the incidence of recurring UTIs in nursing home patients, who are particularly vulnerable to this issue.
Some of aronia’s anticancer properties have also been tested. One study found that aronia extract reduced cell proliferation (growth and division) in human colon cancer cells.
Aronia berries have also shown numerous benefits for heart health. One study found that daily supplementation with black chokeberries reduced blood pressure and cholesterol, especially in individuals over 50 years old.
While most scientists note that more research is still needed, aronia berries have displayed many potential health benefits with no reported adverse side effects. The astringency of the raw berries (a major reason commercial preparation focuses on juice and dried powders rather than fresh fruit) is the primary “side effect” reported by most consumers, and it’s a function of how the berry is prepared rather than any inherent toxicity.
Where to Find Aronia Berries
Aronia grows throughout eastern North America. You can find it in Canada from Newfoundland west to Ontario and south into the United States as far as Arkansas and Georgia. Aronia has also naturalized in parts of Europe (where it’s now widely cultivated commercially) and Eastern Asia.
Aronia thrives in moist to wet, acidic soils. It’s highly adaptable and can grow in sand, clay, or loam soils. It even tolerates compacted soil, salt, and occasional drought or flooding. Look for aronia in:
- Wet meadows, bogs, and the margins of swamps
- Streamside thickets and the banks of small rivers
- Forest edges and woodland clearings with moist soil
- Roadside ditches in rural areas (away from sprayed verges)
- Urban landscape plantings in parks, parking lots, and around public buildings
- Permaculture orchards, food forests, and ornamental edible gardens
Aronia will grow in partial shade to full sun, but shrubs in full sun typically produce more fruit. The plant has become so popular as a landscape shrub that some of the best foraging spots in urban areas are commercial parking lots and public landscape plantings (just check that they’re not sprayed with herbicide before harvesting).
When to Find Aronia Berries
You can identify aronia year-round if you know what you’re looking for, especially the colorful fall foliage and persistent fruit. However, the berries are easiest to find from late summer through early fall.
Aronia is deciduous, dropping its leaves in the fall. The showy white flower clusters usually appear from April to June and last several weeks. Those farther south will spot flowers earlier than those in the north.
The berries begin forming in early summer, after the plant flowers. They’re green at first but ripen to purplish-black or black in late summer or early fall. Usually, this occurs in August in southern parts of its range and in September in northern regions. Many foragers believe the berries are most flavorful and nutritious after a frost, which softens the astringency slightly.
The berries persist on the bush long after they ripen. In a good year, you can sometimes still find aronia berries hanging on through October and November, particularly if the local birds have plenty of other food. The persistent fruit makes aronia particularly easy to spot in autumn against the background of brilliant red foliage.
How to Identify Aronia Berries
Aronia is an upright, rounded shrub with dark green glossy leaves. It’s common to spot aronia growing in thick patches because it can reproduce through root suckers, especially in favorable conditions. These root suckers allow the patch to quickly expand and outcompete other shrubs in the immediate area.
The plant is most notable when it’s in fruit or flower. You may spot the attractive flat-topped clusters of white flowers in spring or the downward-hanging clusters of berries in fall, which ripen to purplish-black or black. The brilliant red and orange fall foliage is another standout identification feature.
Aronia Leaves
Aronia has alternate, finely-toothed, glossy green leaves. The leaves are elliptical to obovate (broader near the tip than at the base) and 1 to 3 inches in length. Each leaf has a series of small dark glands along the central vein on the upper surface, which is a useful identification feature visible with a hand lens.
In the fall, the leaves change to vibrant shades of red, orange, and purple before dropping. The fall color is one of aronia’s most beautiful features and a key reason it’s planted as an ornamental shrub. A roadside stand of aronia in October is unmistakable.
Aronia Stems and Bark
Aronia shrubs can have multiple stems and may reach 3 to 8 feet tall. The stems have relatively smooth dark gray or dark brown bark with conspicuous lenticels (a type of raised pore). The bark on young twigs appears different from mature bark; twigs typically start out green and mature to reddish, then to purplish-brown. Mature stems develop a slightly rougher texture but never become deeply furrowed like cherry or apple bark.
Aronia produces new stems, called root suckers, as a primary reproduction method. These shoots come off the original plant’s root and form clones of the parent. A patch of aronia is often a single genetic individual that has spread vegetatively over years or decades.
Aronia Flowers
In the spring or early summer, between April and June, aronia produces attractive flat-topped clusters (corymbs) of white flowers with showy pink anthers. Each cluster generally contains 5 to 6 flowers, though some clusters can have more. Individual flowers have five petals and are about ⅓ inch in diameter. The flowers are sweetly fragrant and attract many pollinators, particularly native bees.
The flat-topped flower cluster shape (rather than the elongated drooping clusters of true cherries) is one of the easiest features distinguishing aronia from chokecherry, even at a distance.
Aronia Fruit
After flowering, aronia produces small clusters of berries attached to the main branch by a single stem. Immature berries are green but mature to purplish-black or black in late summer or autumn, typically in August or September. Each berry is usually ¼ to ½ inch in diameter, with a small puckered crown at the bottom (a leftover from the flower’s calyx) that resembles the crown on a small apple or blueberry.
Inside the fruit are 1 to 5 small soft seeds set in deep purple jelly-like flesh. The juice is intensely staining (purple-black) and the flesh is tart and astringent when raw. Cut one in cross-section: the structure resembles a tiny apple or pear in miniature, with a five-pointed center where the seeds sit. This is very different from chokecherry, which has a single large hard pit.
Red and Purple Chokeberry (Sister Species)
Two close relatives of Black Chokeberry are also worth knowing about, since they share habitat and use:
- Red Chokeberry (Aronia arbutifolia) is native to the eastern United States with bright red fruit that ripens in the fall and persists into winter. The leaves are slightly larger and more elongated than Black Chokeberry, and the underside of the leaf is densely white-woolly. The fruit is edible and similarly astringent, though less commonly used than Black Chokeberry. Red Chokeberry has a brilliant scarlet fall color even more striking than the black-fruited species.
- Purple Chokeberry (Aronia prunifolia) is a natural hybrid of Black and Red Chokeberry, with intermediate features. The fruit is dark red to purple, often turning black-purple at full ripeness. Range overlaps both parent species. Edible and used the same way as Black Chokeberry.
All three species can be used interchangeably in any aronia recipe. The Red Chokeberry has slightly less anthocyanin content (since the fruit color is partly due to anthocyanins, the lighter-colored fruit has less of these compounds), but otherwise the species share most of their nutritional and medicinal properties.
Aronia Berry Look-Alikes
Aronia is reasonably easy to identify, but several other shrubs share enough features to be worth a closer look. None of the common look-alikes are dangerously toxic, with the important exception of buckthorn (which is mildly toxic and a significant laxative). Always confirm identification with multiple features before harvesting.
Common Buckthorn
Aronia is sometimes mistaken for Common Buckthorn (Rhamnus cathartica), an invasive shrub that produces small dark berries in late summer and fall. Buckthorn berries are mildly toxic and act as a strong laxative when eaten in any quantity. The differences:
- Common Buckthorn has spines on its branches; aronia branches are completely unarmed.
- Common Buckthorn has opposite or sub-opposite leaves (paired across from each other on the stem); aronia has alternate leaves.
- Common Buckthorn has yellowish or yellowish-green flowers in dense small clusters; aronia has showy white flowers with pink anthers in flat-topped clusters.
- Common Buckthorn berries appear to be in a cluster, but on close examination each berry has a separate stem attaching to the main branch; aronia berry clusters are attached to a single shared stem.
- Common Buckthorn berries have 3 to 4 hard seeds per berry; aronia berries have 1 to 5 small soft seeds in jelly-like flesh.
Chokecherry
The similarly named (and edible) Chokecherry (Prunus virginiana) is the most common name confusion, though the plants look quite different in person. Both are useful foraging plants. The differences:
- Chokecherry is often a bit larger and may grow 15 to 30 feet tall as a small tree; aronia is a shrub typically 3 to 8 feet tall.
- Chokecherry forms drooping, elongated flower clusters 3 to 6 inches long; aronia has flat-topped rounded clusters of just a few flowers.
- Chokecherry flowers also have five petals but are generally larger (about ½ inch in diameter) and lack the showy pink anthers of aronia.
- Each chokecherry berry contains a single large hard seed (a true cherry pit); each aronia berry contains 1 to 5 small soft seeds.
- Chokecherry pits, leaves, and bark contain cyanogenic compounds that can be toxic in quantity; all parts of aronia are non-toxic.
Black Cherry
Another look-alike with edible berries is Black Cherry (Prunus serotina). Black Cherry can be distinguished from aronia in the following ways:
- Black Cherry is a tree that can reach 40 to 60 feet tall with a crown 20 to 30 feet wide; aronia is a multi-stemmed shrub.
- Black Cherry bark tends to be dark, rough, and scaly on the trunk (sometimes called “burnt potato chip” bark); aronia bark is smooth.
- Black Cherry leaves tend to be narrower (narrowly ovate or lanceolate-ovate) with rounded teeth on the margins.
- Black Cherry berries are usually larger, ½ to 1 inch in diameter, with a single hard pit per berry.
- Black Cherry flowers are in elongated drooping clusters like chokecherry.
Serviceberry (Shadbush)
Aronia berries can also be confused with Serviceberries (Amelanchier spp.) once both have ripened to dark fruit. Both are edible and in the rose family. The differences:
- Serviceberries have leaves with downy undersides; aronia leaves are smooth and glossy.
- Serviceberry flower clusters form at terminal buds and are short-lived; aronia flower clusters last several weeks.
- Individual serviceberry flowers are produced from woolly buds.
- Serviceberry leaves tend to be wider, more oval or rounded.
- Serviceberries ripen in late June and early July (much earlier than aronia); aronia ripens in August through October.
How to Harvest Aronia Berries
Aronia berries are one of the easier wild fruits to harvest in volume because the clusters hang in accessible locations and the berries are firm enough not to crush themselves. The plant is also reliably productive year over year, with mature shrubs producing 2 to 5 pounds of fruit annually under good conditions.
Practical harvest tips:
- Wait until the berries are fully ripe (deep purple-black, soft to gentle pressure). Underripe berries are even more astringent than ripe ones.
- Harvest entire clusters by clipping them at the base of the cluster stem with garden shears or just snapping them off with a fingernail. This is much faster than picking individual berries.
- For maximum sweetness, wait until after the first frost. The cold concentrates the sugars and softens the astringency.
- Wear old clothes or an apron. The juice stains permanently.
- Bring more containers than you think you’ll need. A productive aronia patch can yield 5 gallons of fruit in an afternoon if you’ve found a healthy untouched stand.
- Plan your processing in advance. Aronia berries don’t keep at room temperature for more than a few days, so know whether you’re juicing, freezing, or making wine before you commit to a big harvest.
For long-term storage, freeze whole berries on a tray in a single layer, then transfer to bags once frozen. Frozen aronia is excellent for winter juice making (the freezing actually helps break down cell walls for better juice extraction). The berries also dry well in a dehydrator, and dried aronia is a popular addition to granola, trail mix, and tea blends.
Ways to Use Aronia Berries
Aronia berries don’t sound tasty and can be pretty astringent plain, but they are incredibly healthy and make a delicious addition to many recipes once cooked or sweetened. The Eastern European culinary tradition has the most developed aronia cuisine, with the famous Polish chokeberry pudding called kisiel being one of the most beloved preparations.
One of the easiest ways to add aronia to your diet is to drink them. You can make sweetened aronia juice or add the berries to smoothies with other fruit. The deep purple color makes any drink look festive, and the antioxidant load is hard to beat. Try blending aronia with apple, grape, or blueberry for a less astringent juice.
Aronia berries are also a great addition to baked goods and other recipes. You can add them to muffins, pies, quick breads, granola, and pancakes. They make a flavorful simple syrup to add to cocktails and other drinks, or to pour over pancakes, oatmeal, or yogurt.
Extra aronia berries are easy to preserve. You can freeze or dry them whole. You can also can them as preserves, jelly, or jam. The high natural acid and pectin content of aronia means jelly sets reliably with little or no added pectin.
For medicinal use, aronia is most often consumed as juice, dried berries, or tinctures. For easy daily use, try adding dried aronia berries to looseleaf tea blends or powder them to fill capsules. You can also use fresh, dried, or frozen berries to make an aronia tincture.
Aronia Recipes
I have a comprehensive collection of aronia recipes on Adamant Kitchen if you’re looking for all the options, but here are a few favorites to get you started:
- Need an on-the-go snack? Try these vegan Aronia Oatmeal Crumble Bars from Vibrant Plate.
- Craft your own Aronia Berry Simple Syrup for cocktails, desserts, and sauces.
- Put up extra berries with this simple Aronia Jelly recipe from Creative Canning.
- Make aronia berries the star of the show with this Classic Aronia Berry Pie recipe from the American Aronia Berry Association.
- Get your ferment on with this homemade Aronia Wine Recipe.
- Make an easy-to-take medicine with this Simple Aronia Berry Tincture recipe.
- Try the traditional Polish Aronia Kisiel (chokeberry pudding) recipe, a centuries-old Eastern European tradition.
Aronia Berry FAQs
Yes, aronia berries (Aronia melanocarpa) are edible and not poisonous. The raw fruit is intensely tart and astringent, with a puckering mouthfeel that gave the plant its ‘chokeberry’ common name. The astringency comes from high tannin levels and dissipates substantially when the berries are cooked, fermented, or sweetened. Most foragers find aronia unpleasant raw but excellent in juice, jelly, jam, syrup, wine, and the traditional Polish chokeberry pudding (kisiel). The berries are exceptionally high in antioxidants, vitamin C, and fiber, and have been studied extensively for cardiovascular and immune benefits.
Chokecherry (Prunus virginiana) and Chokeberry (Aronia spp.) are completely different plants in different genera. Chokecherry is in the cherry/plum family, grows as a small tree (15-30 feet tall), produces drooping elongated flower clusters in spring, and bears cherry-like fruit with a single hard pit. Chokeberry is in the rose family alongside apples, grows as a multi-stemmed shrub (3-8 feet tall), produces flat-topped clusters of white flowers, and bears small dark or red fruits with multiple small soft seeds. Chokecherry pits and leaves contain cyanogenic compounds that can be toxic in quantity; all parts of chokeberry are non-toxic. The names sound similar but the plants are easy to tell apart up close.
Raw aronia berries taste intensely tart and astringent, with a puckering quality that comes from high tannin content. The astringency is the source of the ‘chokeberry’ common name; raw berries genuinely make you want to spit them out. Cooked or sweetened aronia tastes much milder, with a deep wine-like flavor that some describe as a cross between a tart cherry and a port wine. The flavor mellows and improves dramatically with cooking, frost exposure, fermentation (in wine), or blending with sweeter fruits like apple, grape, or blueberry.
Yes, aronia berries are completely safe to eat in any reasonable quantity. The ‘chokeberry’ name refers to astringency rather than toxicity. Aronia is widely consumed in Eastern Europe (especially Poland and Russia) as a traditional food, and aronia juice and dried berries are sold worldwide as health supplements. Clinical studies of high-dose aronia consumption have reported no adverse side effects. The only practical caution: the dark juice will stain hands, clothes, and counters intensely, so wear old clothes when processing the harvest.
Aronia berries have substantially higher antioxidant content than blueberries by most measures. The ORAC (oxygen radical absorbance capacity) value of aronia is among the highest of any commonly consumed food, often cited at 4 to 6 times higher than blueberries. Aronia is also higher in anthocyanins (the dark pigments responsible for both color and many of the antioxidant benefits), polyphenols, and proanthocyanidins. Both fruits are excellent sources of vitamin C and fiber. Blueberries are sweeter and more pleasant raw; aronia is more intensely flavored and typically eaten in cooked or processed forms. Combining the two (as in many Eastern European preparations) gives you the best of both.
Did you find this Aronia Berry foraging guide helpful? Tell me in the 📝 comments below how you use aronia on your homestead!
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I wonder if you could preserve these in honey?
You could possibly do a fermented honey with them.
We went fishing at a new spot today & wouldn’t you know it, the dirt road across from the pond had bushes absolutely dripping with these fruits! 🤭✌️ Tomorrow’s homeschooling lesson will definitely be foraging black chokeberry! Thank you! 👏👏👏
We have wild firecracker plants with a red flower that bees and hummingbirds like. They have berries that are black when ripe. I read that they were edible so I have been picking and eating some. They are tasty but ascerbic – slightly sweet. Have you heard of them? Would like to know their nutritional value.
I have not actually heard of those before. They sounds very interesting though.
Hi,
I just harvested some aronia from a local park and made jam (or compote, because I put very little sugar) by adding a cup of blueberries to 2 1/2 cups of aronia. Then, I used a hand blender to smooth it all out. The result was amazing. It came out very thick and perfect to spread on toast, croissants, baguette and anything else you could think of.
That sounds really lovely. Thanks for sharing.
Ashley, Quite the coincidence coming across this post as I picked a small branch off a shrub in a local park. The leave have that fine serrated roundish shape and the berries are jet black, stems are individual for each berry. The only difference they don’t have the puckered look like your these are completely round. There doesn’t appear to be an attachment option to this post or I’d send along a picture. Bill
All the ones I’ve seen have had the pucker on the end, so it’s possible you have something different.
I even eat the leaves raw, they had no acidic or bad taste at all, tasted like acid-less protein or something. Wonder the antioxidant and nutritional value of the leaves.
Interesting. Thanks for sharing!
What do the seeds look like?
If you will scroll through this article from Friends of the Wildflower Garden you will see many pictures, including one with the seeds. https://www.friendsofthewildflowergarden.org/pages/plants/blackchokeberry.html
I’m not sure if this is what I found. The berries and plant look the same, but the berries taste way too astringent to eat raw and each has two or three seeds/stones. The bark on the bush looks like cherry but I am sure these are not choke cherries, as I have many choke cherry bushes and gather quite a bit. These are not starchy like cherries. Also, the skin is black but the inner fruit is the color of concord grapes.
I own a few acres in upstate New York and I have noticed a type of berry that I can’t 100% identify. They seem to me through research to be Chokeberry but I’m not completely sure and was looking for help with identification. The berries are small, maybe a tad smaller than pomegranate seeds, right now they have turned dark blue/purple. The stems have turned red as well as the edge of the leaves. The ground is swampy in the area and there’s lots of wild blackberries and raspberries around them. I’m just not sure if there is anything that look very similar that may be toxic. I do know what pokeweed is and I know they are not that. I do have a photo but can’t attach it. Any help would be greatly appreciated because I have a lot of them and I’d love to know if they’re edible.
There is a really great plant identification group on Facebook. You can post your picture there and they will ID it for you. https://www.facebook.com/groups/156706504394635 I also always recommend checking several other sources to confirm the identification. You can also check field guides and look for groups in your area that are knowledgeable in foraging and plant identification.
The size doesn’t sound like aronia. I’m wondering if it’s some sort of Viburnum.
Hi Ashley,
Thank you for your sharing on your site. I came across it a few times looking for things since my husband and I have land in the NEK and eventually will move up there from Milton so we will be the furthest from our one and only Vermont Trader Joes and Healthy living than we’ve ever been. We are doing our best to learn as much foraging as we can make use of on our land but are having a hard time finding help online or in person to give us some place to start. Is there any chance you or someone you know would be available for a 1-2 hour walk around up in Brownington in the near future to help do some berry IDing to set me on the path for investigating further? It looks like we have about at least 6 types of berries on the land (two are raspberries and blackberries) bu the rest are totally foreign to me. Please let me know what you think and if so what type of compensation would be agreeable. Thanks so much.
Hiw do you preserve choke berries. I have an abundant supply this year. Freeze them like blueberries ?
Yes, you can freeze them whole like blueberries. It depends on how you plan to use them. I juice them in a steam juicer and we’ve made wine with the juice, and I’ve thought about canning it. I’m not exactly sure on the pH and if it’s safe for water bath canning. One source says the juice has a pH 3.5, but really there’s limited information on canning them online.
This is all I could find from the Ag extension:
“There is little information about home juice extraction and
aronia product formulation. Juice extraction may be done in a
manner similar to that used for grapes. Hot extraction has been
reported to give a better-flavored product with less “green”
flavor and better color. This does slightly dilute the juice and
produce a juice lower in total acidity than is usually needed for
jam making or wine making. Adding acid could compensate for
the deficiency. The berries may be frozen and the juice
extracted later. Berries frozen before grinding or crushing may
produce higher juice yields. Sugar may need to be added to
juices or syrups to counteract the strong flavor of the tannins.”