What Are Aronia Berries?
Aronia berries are small, intensely purple fruits from the aronia melanocarpa shrub, a hardy, deciduous plant native to North America, renowned for their exceptional polyphenol content.
Aronia berries are slightly smaller than blueberries and grow in tight clusters of 10 to 30 berries per stem. Unlike many other berries, where the polyphenols are concentrated in the skin, aronia’s polyphenols permeate both the skin and the inner flesh, giving the berry its characteristic deep purple colour throughout. This unique composition makes aronia one of the most potent sources of polyphenols.
Aronia plants produce high amounts of polyphenols to protect themselves from the environment, diseases and pests and as a result they thrive in diverse climates, with minimal intervention. This makes them a naturally resilient crop, ideally suited to low input, organic agriculture.
Low in Sugar
Aronia berries are naturally very low in sugar and so can have a slightly tart, bitter taste. For this reason, the aronia berries themselves are not commonly found for sale in supermarkets.
PhyterBerry use the whole berry to create juices and powders that taste good, without having sugar added to them (unlike the majority of cranberry products available).
So you get a great tasting product, with all the natural polyphenol benefits, without any of the harmful effects of too much sugar!
Organically Speaking.
The naturally produced high levels of polyphenols in aronia plants, makes them strong, resilient and adaptable and ideally suited to organic cultivation. They thrive without herbicides, pesticides, or chemical fertilizers, keeping the land free from artificial contaminants. At Steve’s West Cork hill farm, we grow aronia on some of the most marginal land, areas typically considered suitable only for forestry or sheep grazing.
Aronia’s deep roots allow them to outcompete most weeds, meaning the land between the plants can be left untouched. This fosters a diverse ecology, supporting an abundance of wildlife, from pollinators to beneficial insects, creating a balanced, self-sustaining environment.
The deep roots also anchor the plants against high winds, allowing us to grow aronia high up the mountain, where few other edible crops can survive. They penetrate compacted clay layers, improving aeration and drawing carbon into the subsoil, stimulating an underground ecosystem of bacteria, fungi, and protozoa that enhances soil fertility and biodiversity.
This low-input, regenerative approach makes aronia an exciting crop for the future of Irish upland agriculture.
Community Based.
PhyterBerry’s vision is to produce all our products from berries grown on Irish organic farms, and use the demand for our products to create a market for aronia that can drive improvements in agricultural diversity and sustainability.
While this is a long-term goal, we’re already making good progress. Steve’s farm at Derry Duff has shown that aronia thrives in Ireland, even on marginal land in harsh conditions, and we have developed a cultivation method tailored to the local environment.
We have helped several Irish farmers establish their own aronia plantations, supplying organic bushes, providing guidance based on our experience and offering a guaranteed purchase of harvest. This not only diversifies Irish agriculture, making it more sustainable and helping Ireland meet its emissions reduction targets, but also creates new income opportunities for farmers through regenerative practices.
Fresh Bedding.
At Steve's farm, Derry Duff in West Cork, he plants three-year-old organic aronia bushes in February, giving them a small handful of organic chicken manure to provide nutrients during their first year, as their roots establish.
At this stage, the bushes are vulnerable to weeds, so they mulch them with wool and wood chips - laying whole sheep fleeces along the rows and covering them with a layer of wood chip. Although quite a lot of work, this natural method suppresses weeds, protects soil health, and reduces erosion and moisture loss and sets the bushes up for success over the next 20 years.
With the wool market in decline - especially for rough Blackface hill sheep wool which had become practically worthless, this approach provides a valuable use for a local resource. At Derry Duff, they buy all the wool their neighbouring sheep farmers can supply and they still need to buy more from further afield!
Where Are Aronia Berries From?
Aronia plants are native to North America commonly known as ‘chokeberries’ there, which refers to their bitter taste. The berries have been used for centuries by the native North Americans for medicinal purposes.
Aronia Berries Have Been Used For Centuries
How Were Aronia Berries Used by Native Americans?
Aronia berries were used by the Forest Potawatomi Native Americans, who called them ‘‘nˆıki’mˆınuˆn’’ or ‘‘sakwako’mˆınuˆn,’’ to make a tea for the treatment of colds.
They were also used by early American settlers as an astringent antiseptic and preservative for meats in a food called pemmican.
Due To Their Health Giving Properties
What does a strong colour mean?
Foods that are purple in colour are commonly known to be healthy, such as blueberries. The deep colour goes all the way through an aronia berry, whereas the inside of a blueberry is white.