In Iowa: Though tart, aronia berries offer sweet benefits

QUASQUETON - A week ago, I noticed unusual activity in an 8-acre hayfield on the northeast corner of this Buchanan County town.

Amid a monoculture of corn and soybeans, a dozen people with an odd array of machinery were planting little green shrubs in precise strips across the field.

My curiosity piqued, I stopped to inquire.

'Aronia berries,” said Dean Mangrich, co-proprietor of Aronia Berry Services of Northeast Iowa, a Fairbank-based company that sells plants and berries, and custom plants and harvests aronia.

Though native to Iowa, the aronia, also known as the black chokeberry, has only recently gained notice in the upper Midwest as a plant ideally suited to occupy the intersection of alternate crops and healthful foods.

Aronia's ability to improve the health of its consumers and the health of the environment that sustains it, coming just as more people are recognizing the need for both, position aronia for rapid growth, Mangrich said.

The berries are rich in antioxidant levels that reduce inflammation and help control blood pressure and blood sugar levels, among helping with many other ailments, according to Mangrich.

A 2010 U.S. Department of Agriculture database rated aronia higher than all other berries in oxygen radical absorbance capacity, a measure of antioxidant levels.

'It is the King Kong of antioxidant berries,” said Tony Heisterkamp, president of the National Aronia Growers Association, the marketing arm for independent growers.

'Pound for pound, aronia exceeds all other super fruits in human health benefits,” said Heisterkamp, who planted his first aronia 10 years ago on his farm near Akron in northwest Iowa.

Heisterkamp said the association is working with the USDA to classify aronia as a registered crop, which would make it eligible for research and marketing funds.

In the meantime, he said, information about the berries will continue to spread by word-of-mouth from satisfied growers and consumers.

'People are becoming more conscious of what they are putting in their bodies. They would rather spend upfront for healthier foods than later for doctor-prescribed drugs,” said Brenda Costello, co-owner with Mangrich of their aronia enterprises.

Besides their custom planting and harvesting, she and Mangrich also raise aronia on their What Berry Farm.

The name, Mangrich said, derives from the hundreds of times people have asked them, 'What berry is that?”

Both Mangrich and Heisterkamp said interest in planting aronia is growing exponentially.

Jeff Fruchtenicht and Brenda Markey, co-owners of the new plantation in Quasqueton, said they hired Mangrich and his partner, Donna Costello, to establish their aronia just three days after learning about the plant.

They were attracted, they said, by the plant's profit potential and the sustainable nature of its cultivation.

Once a plantation is established, it will yield a crop in its third year and continue to produce indefinitely, with little additional investment and labor, Mangrich said.

While the USDA does not yet track aronia plantings, Heisterkamp said he knows of about 750,000 bushes in production, with another 500,000 to 700,000 bushes to be planted this fall and next spring.

Mangrich said aronia is easy to grow and easy on the environment. Because the plant is susceptible to few diseases and pests and is fertilized primarily with fish emulsion, it requires few if any chemicals.

And because no tillage is required other than the minimum tillage at the initial planting, the soil it grows in is insusceptible to erosion.

Aronia berries would be too good to be true if they tasted like, say, strawberries or raspberries. But having tasted both the berries and the juice squeezed from them, I can say their tart flavor does appeal to me.

Roberta Barham, president of the Midwest Aronia Association, said the berries have an astringent effect like dry wine. Barham, who has about 1,000 plants on her southwest Wisconsin acreage, said she often hands out samples at farmers markets in Madison.

'I get about a 50-50 response. It depends on your individual palate,” she said.

Barham said she drinks the juice and puts the berries in jams, yogurt, cereal and pies.