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Plant Spotlight: Aronia

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 Plant Spotlight:     Aronia - Aronia melonocarpa       Aronias or Chokeberries are one of the world's many super fruits. It's more potent nutrionally than blueberries and doesn't even require the low pH that blueberries need. They can tolerate a wide pH range, but ideally they range from 6-6.5.  An journal from the National Library of Medicine said:      "The fruits of  Aronia melanocarpa  (Aronia berries) have been found to show multiple bioactivities potentially beneficial to human health, including antidiabetic, anti-infective, antineoplastic, antiobesity, and antioxidant activities, as well as heart-, liver-, and neuroprotective effects. Thus far, phenolic compounds, such as anthocyanins, cyanidins, phenolic acids, proanthocyanidins, triterpenoids, and their analogues have been identified as the major active components of Aronia berries."      They are native to many of Eastern states including Kentucky. Whi...
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Being Practical as a Gardener or Homesteader

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    One of the more important aspects of growing your own food or raising livestock for that matter is making practical decisions. Spending hundreds of dollars in building materials, soils, and fertilizers to produce a little bit of tomatoes is not practical, yet people still do this every year. The purpose of this blog post is to encourage practical assessments of your goals.     A common misconception in building raised beds is the belief that all treated lumber contains arsenic. Producers are not longer able to treat lumber with arsenic, and they must use one of three copper compounds. All of which are safe for raised beds. People spend a lot of money buying untreated lumber to have it rot the next year or cedar lumber for it to break the wallet, and neither are needed. If you're going to start from scratch and make a fresh set of beds I would use treated 2x8s or larger. If you are not concerned about things being perfect, many lumber yards give away pine slabs an...
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Location: Kentucky, USA
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