Sitting in our freezer for the past 9 months, were almost a dozen bags of aronia berries that were harvested last season. Now that the 2015 berry-harvest season is upon us, I decided some room was needed for all those delicious strawberries that are just about to ripen.
We've been making aronia berry juice for the past few seasons. The first year was wonderful- we harvested them in late August and had over a half dozen 5-gallon buckets full.to.the.brim. The juice was frozen and we had more than a year's supply.
The next year's harvest kind of sucked. We harvested the berries too early due to our excitement for more delicious juice and ended up with similar amounts but it was much too astringent. Only on a rare occasion would I dare to test the juice hoping for a sweeter flavor. But to no avail....
Last summer, we waited patiently and harvested the last week of August once again. With our move from Oregon to Idaho occuring the same week I decided that I would just have to make juice another time, when life settled. Well, it's as settled as it's going to be and with another 80 degree morning, juice-making seemed like the only appropriate thing to do!
The gloves are absolutely essential unless you want your hands looking like they're profusely bleeding for the nest two weeks. As a massage therapist by trade I decided to go with the gloves...Although it would probably make an amazing dye (I'm thinking all those white dresses and skirts that I can never wear anymore due to their whiteness).
With a half gallon of freshly sqeeezed aronia juice and a very stained toddler shirt going in the rag bin, we all took a break from the hectic business of our little farm to enjoy the sweet, sweet flavor of a late summer harvest.
No comments:
Post a Comment