Chokeberry

What it is

The fruits are small, shiny and purple-black. Each is a pome, the same type of fruit as an apple. Their flavor is tart and bitter, and tannins in the skin leave a dry, chalky feeling in your mouth.

Where it comes from

Black chokeberry is native to eastern North America, where it grows as a wild shrub. Aronia also has a history of fruit growing in Russia: Viking and Nero were selected there for commercial production and brought to the United States. Both carry mountain-ash ancestry as well as chokeberry.

How it's eaten where it grows

On Maryland’s Eastern Shore, Chester River Aronia folds fresh or frozen berries into zucchini bread with cinnamon and cloves. Its cranberry–aronia sauce adds orange juice and zest, keeping two tart fruits together in the pan.

Aronia preserves can also combine strained berry juice with apple sauce, lemon, orange zest and cinnamon. The apple sauce gives the preserve its texture and a little natural pectin. These are spoonable preserves for toast, with the berries strained out before the final cooking.

How it's grown

The plant is a shrub, commonly 0.9–1.5 m (3–5 ft) tall, with several stems and new shoots spreading from its base. It tolerates wet and dry soils and grows in sun or partial shade, with its best fruiting in full sun. Its leaves turn red before dropping for winter.

When and where you'll find it

In southern Ohio, commercial aronia usually ripens from mid-August to early September. Blue Fruit Farm near Winona, Minnesota, usually harvests in August and offers fresh berries in season, frozen fruit, cold-pressed juice and jelly. On juice, jelly and other fruit products, the berry usually goes by aronia, a friendlier name than chokeberry.