Aronia

"Emancipate yourself from mental slavery.
None but ourselves can free our minds." – Bob Marley


The story of the exodus tells of a desert burning bush speaking to Moses regarding delivery from slavery and misery. And another story goes like this: An Aronia shrub in Autumn is the voice of god. Songs of freedom flare from these flame-leaves, their true colors igniting the world with celestial poems of liberty. Deliver us from slavery and misery? They look like they could.

These shrubs (up to 8' tall) blanket landscaped hills, line Library pathways and buffer yards. The thick and leathery leaves with a saw-toothed pointed-oval shape are dark, shiny green in summer. The Autumn leaves are revolutionary red, riot red, Mujeres Libres red. These leaves will not be slipping quietly from this world. And the berries clustered beneath them are bitter, honest and black as the anarchist uniform.

This is also a story of a common landscaping plant turned Super-Nutra-ceutical. Once thought to be the last in nutritional edification, they are now the first in antioxidant imbibery.

A multitude of studies find Aronias to be the most potent anti-oxidant on earth, and loaded with Vitamin C (many study cites at wikipedia.com). Antioxidants, as you can deduce, slow oxidation which is supposedly caused by marauding free-radicals that bash in the glass windows of your cells, so to speak. Antioxidants were originally looked into as preventatives of rust, oil spoilage, and fat rancidity. And, as far as your body is concerned, the analogy is apt. Want to prevent rust, spoilage and rancidity? Aronias are your berry.

Normally, I wouldn't advocate anything that might limit the freedoms of radicals. I don't want to picture these clusters of Aronia berries in riot gear, wantonly firing rubber bullets (which look a lot like Aronia berries) into a block of free radicals. Perhaps these are merely semantics, but one might consider a conspiracy of government scientists to defame radicals. They could have named them Staid Centrists, right?

Studies also demonstrate Aronias boosting circulation, maintaining urinary tract health, fortifying the heart and fighting cancer (www.hort.net).

Aronias taste just like you might imagine the world's most powerful anti-oxidant would. Their other name is "Chokeberry" (not to be confused with Chokecherry, which is worse). These are not masquerading Jolly Ranchers, and yet somehow my children Love them.

I've hesitated to share the "good news" of Aronias because I've not known what to do with them, other than let the children eat them, then bleach their fingers. And I generously leave them for February birds.

A little "research" revealed these black clad anti-oxidants to be useful after all: for making wine and jams and juices. As readers might recall, my experiments with wine and jam making have been rather …unsuccessful. And my perseverance for such domestic hobbies is very weak indeed.

Aronia jams are sold all over the internet. R.W. Knudsen has come out with bottled Aronia juice. And I direct you to this wine recipe: http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/aronia.asp.

Even more "research" revealed that Aronia berries make excellent and gorgeous scone accessories.

Just as soon as our first frost tempers the tart, I'll be trying this recipe for Aronia juice, found on WSU's Mt. Vernon extension website: http://mtvernon.wsu.edu/frt_hort/aronia01.htm. Though I don't exactly understand the vague directions, I will give it my best shot.

Native to Northeast North America, probably conceived in what became the "Live free or die" state of New Hampshire, this fruit's popularity is yet in its infancy on this continent. However, ex-patriot Aronias have imbedded themselves within the Polish world, where they are quite popular. However, I've uncovered no reports of what we can assume are particularly healthy Polish urinary tracts.

I will remind readers that not all black berries are as marginally edible as Aronias. Some will taste better and some might kill you. Do not jam, juice, wine or scone these berries without 100% certain identification.

Will Aronias free us from slavery? Not even mental slavery. Save us from the misery of rust? rancidity? spoilage? oxidation? Probably!! Bust us from our prisons of urinary tract infections and sluggish circulation? Certainly!! Save us from Free Radicals? Why would we want that?

Aronia-Apple Juice: recipe courtesy Georgene Lee, WSU Mt. Vernon Extension
Steam Aronia berries to extract juice (Yield approximately 2 cups of juice per pound of berries). Mix half and half with apple juice, either commercial or home produced, and chill.