If you have a large supply of fresh aronia berries, but don’t know what to do with all of them, you can make some concentrated aronia berry juice and can or freeze it for future use. Making juice concentrate is easy, requiring only a few pieces of equipment and about ½ day of your time.

Instructions

Things you will need to squeeze juice

16 pounds fresh dark blue aronia berries

8 quart pot

4 cups of Fructevia (natural sweetener without bad taste)

Apple cider press and large plastic container

Method 1 use cider press

• Rinse the frozen aronia berries in the large metal strainer under cold water to remove any debris, insects, or pesticides. Stir the berries in the strainer while rinsing.
• Carefully pour 16 pounds of the cleaned aronia berries into the apple cider press.
• Using the apple cider press on the aronia berries, squeeze out the juice. This pressing squeezes out the liquid and separates it from the pulp.
• For the resulting liquid in a container. There should be about 1 gallon of juice. Add 4 cups of Fructevia or sweeten to taste.
• Drain the resulting liquid in the pot and place the pot on the stove. Bring to a boil, while stirring the Fructevia, after about two minutes turn off the stove.
• Can the aronia berry be concentrated and stored in a cool dark place for later use? Here are two reasons to process your juice instead of freezing it: #1 If the power goes out, you could lose your juice. #2 You only have limited space in the freezer
• Alternatively, allow the liquid to cool and pour into containers to freeze. You can use this concentrate to make drinks or jellies. For about 1/3 cup of this aronia berry juice concentrate, you can make about a quart of aronia berry drink by adding it to club soda. To make gelatin you need to use low methoxyl pectin.

Method 2, use a stainless steel steam juicer

• Wash the aronia berries, leave the berries on their stems, and submerge the entire cluster in a sink of cold water.
• Fill the bottom section of the steam juicer with water and heat to a boil. As you make your juice, watch the water level in this bottom section to make sure it doesn’t run dry.
• Fill the top section of the steam juicer with cleaned aronia berries and place the lid on top.
• The berries will cook and shrink as the juice vaporizes. Add more berries to the top of the basket as the berries begin to shrink.
• The heat from the steam will cook the aronia berries. The aronia berry juice will drain into the center section of the steam juicer. Drain the juice by loosening the rubber tube after a couple of quarts have collected in the center section.
• Keep track of the juice level in the center section. Do not allow the juice level to reach the level of the center cone or the juice will spill into the boiling water in the lower section of the steam juicer.
• Let any leftover pulp drain overnight before discarding.
• Follow the simple standard canning instructions for canning the juice. Add fructevia to each bottle to sweeten to taste. (usually about 2 cups per quart)

Tips and Warnings

• You can freeze the concentrate in ice cube trays, take them out and store them in zip-top bags. By adding two of these cubes to a glass of cold water or carbonated water, you get a delicious and refreshing drink.
• You can make aronia berry juice on its own or get creative in the varieties you create while learning how to make aronia berry juice. For example, you can mix apple juice or grape juice with your aronia berry juice.
• Steam juicers do not create raw juice. Steam juicers cook the juice. A press does not cook the juice. When produce is heated in the steam juicer, enzymes are lost and other nutrients in the juice are destroyed. Pressing the berries to produce juice is better because the enzymes are not destroyed.