The berry that went to Europe and came back
Aronia is a North American shrub. According to North Dakota State University, its fruit varieties were developed on the other side of the ocean and later brought back.
Aronia did not have to travel to be American. The University of Wisconsin–Madison’s extension describes it as “a deciduous shrub native to eastern North America, including Wisconsin.” Deciduous means it drops its leaves in the fall. Yet North Dakota State University’s Carrington Research Extension Center tells a stranger story about the bushes grown for fruit. Aronia, it says, is “A native North American plant that is also known as black chokeberry, it was developed into commercial varieties in Eastern Europe and later reintroduced to the United States.” The same page adds: “The plants used for fruit production are tetraploid crosses and are alleged to have been bred by Russian biologist Ivan Michurin over 100 years ago.” Notice the careful word alleged: the research center itself does not say this for certain, so neither do we. What the page does say without hedging is that the plant is tough in the cold — “It is a USDA hardiness zone 3 shrub that expands from the crown and does not sucker aggressively.” Zone 3 is one of the cold zones on USDA’s plant hardiness map, the map gardeners use to find out which plants can survive their winters.
Basis: North Dakota State University, Carrington Research Extension Center, Northern Hardy Fruit Evaluation Project, Fruit Index, “Aronia – Aronia mitschurinii”; University of Wisconsin–Madison Division of Extension, Crops & Soils, “Aronia Berries.” Quotations unchanged.
The old name, chokeberry, is a clue to the taste. The Wisconsin page says the berry has “an astringent flavor when eaten fresh, hence the name chokeberry.” Astringent is not the same as bitter. The North Dakota page draws the line in one sentence: “The fruit is not bitter – it is astringent: it dries out your mouth.” Bitter is a taste. Astringent is a feeling — the dry, rough, puckery feeling left on your tongue and cheeks. The same page says that although you can eat aronia fresh, “most people will find it too strong and too astringent for ready enjoyment,” and advises: “It is best to freeze the fruit and then process it” — into foods such as jelly, juice, yogurt or ice cream. The Wisconsin page names the same problem from the farmer’s side: “Direct marketing of aronia berries to consumers is a challenge because of the astringency of the fresh berries.”
Basis: North Dakota State University, Carrington Research Extension Center, “Aronia – Aronia mitschurinii”; University of Wisconsin–Madison Division of Extension, “Aronia Berries,” sections introduction and Markets. Quotations unchanged.
Why does USDA’s aronia table count only acres that are bearing? Because a young bush is not a fruit bush yet. The Wisconsin page explains: “Plants begin to produce berries in their second or third year, but significant yields are not achieved until years four or five.” A farmer who plants aronia this spring is waiting years for a real crop. Two more lines from the same page explain why it can still be farmed like a row crop: “Plants are self-fruitful and do not require more than one variety for fruit set,” and “Commercial, over-row blueberry harvesters work well for aronia.” A machine built for one berry can pick another.
Basis: University of Wisconsin–Madison Division of Extension, “Aronia Berries,” section Production. Quotations unchanged.
Why are the top four states USDA printed for aronia Iowa, Nebraska, Wisconsin and North Dakota? None of the sources used here says. Here are some possibilities, not findings. One is cold: a shrub that the North Dakota page calls a zone 3 plant might fit places with hard winters — but a plant that can survive the cold could, in principle, be grown in many places, so being cold-hardy by itself does not tell you where it will be farmed. Another is neighbors: because the fresh berry is hard to sell, a grower may need a processor or a group of other growers nearby, and a crop like that could gather where such groups already exist. The North Dakota page mentions that Wisconsin has a group of growers working on processing, and the Wisconsin page lists the American Aronia Berry Association, formerly the Midwest Aronia Association. Neither page says that is why any state ranks where it does. A column of acres cannot tell you which idea is right.
※ A hypothesis is an idea that isn't proven yet.
📊 Sources for the rankings mentioned in this note (links to the original data and retrieval dates) are on each quiz page below.