Things Are Blooming

The Bradfords around town have been in full bloom for a while at this point: they were opening up in late February.  My blueberries are blooming now and my aronia bush has been in bloom for a while, as well.

The aronia is interesting.  I got it because the juice is commercially available--meaning at some level it's palatable--and I was swayed by nursery descriptions of it being sweet.  There is a hint of sweetness, but a lot of astringency.  The only way I've managed to make it work is to put the berries in with cranberries for sauce; I have served a mix of cranberry and aronia berry sauce at Thanksgiving a couple of times.

As can be seen, the berries from last fall are still on the bush: I didn't even pick very many of them last fall, because I think I'm pretty much done with aronia.  The birds didn't even take them.  I tried one a couple of days ago and it's about the same: slight sweetness with a barrel full of astringency.  I have never successfully eaten one raw.  I always spit them out.

However, it does sucker a little and the flowers are nice and are also pleasantly fragrant.  So it's not a total loss.

The blueberries are in full bloom, and that's not necessarily a good thing.  Another cold night looms, which might wipe out the crop (again; this happened just a couple of years ago).

For now, spring is here.  Next week, it might leave for one or two fateful days.