Saturday and Sunday, September 19th and 20th, 10 a.m.- 6 p.m.

On September 19th and 20th, Sawmill Hollow Organic farms is hosting the annual Aronia berry festival in order to stress the importance and benefits of supporting aronia berry production, healthy eating, sustainable development, and local farms.  The event will be held at Sawmill Hollow Organic Farm, North of Missouri Valley.  There will be something for everyone at the festival: live musical acts, gardening and winemaking demonstrations, wine tastings, product samplings, and speakers from around the country (rotations beginning at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m.) Children’s activities are to include nature walks, face painting, farm safety, gardening, and viewing bison bones and other prairie artifacts. A vast selection of arts and crafts produced by over 20 artisans from the Loess Hills will be sold and on display at the event.

Sawmill Hollow Organic Farm is the site of the first commercial and organic Aronia Berry Plantation in the United States and hosts the largest selection of aronia berry products sourced in the United States and grown locally. Come join us at this good ol’ fashioned community building event featuring free children’s activities, speakers, music, arts and crafts, and food and wine. See you September 19th and 20th.

Speaking Schedule

Aronia and Farming Presentations:

Dr. Andrew Ristvey, Regional Specialist, University of Maryland, Commercial Horticulture

Vaughn Pittz, Founder of first Aronia Plantation in U.S.A., Sawmill Hollow Farm

SARE

Jerry DeWitt, Director, Leopold Center and Member North Central Region SARE Administrative Council

Iowa State University Extension:

Dr. Alan Ladd, Regional Extension Director, Iowa State University

Dr. Eldon Everhart, Field Specialist, Iowa State University

Sustainability and Social Entrepreneurship:

Jody Baines Executive Director, Great Plains Environmental Law Center and Board Member Nebraska Environmental Action Coalition

Andrew Pittz, Executive Director, Association for Social Entrepreneurship

The 2009 Speaking Schedule is being formalized and will be up with in the next week. Check back soon!

Artisans and Musicians:

Artisans and Musicians of the Loess Hills presenting at the Aronia Festival :

Artisans Annie Potter, Soldier, SIMPLY UNIQUE, spinning wheel demonstrations, textile woven materials. Georgene Wessell, CREATIONS OF NATURE Loess Hills walking canes, hand crafted jewelry. Pam Cates, Missouri Valley, Local artist and naturalist, showing matted prints, note cards. Tim & Mary Hamer, Missouri Valley, LOESS HILLS LAVENDER FARM, lavender plant sale.  Susan Maule, director/librarian MONDAMIN PUBLIC LIBRARY, children’s activity coordinator.  Muriel Alger, Missouri Valley, WILLOWWIND SOAPS lotion and soap making demonstrations. LOESS HILLS HOSPITALITY ASSOCIATION, Moorhead, Melody Deitering Quilts and ‘QUILTS OF THE HILLS’ display. Bev’s SNIP AND STITCH country fashion, table runners, pillows, placemats. FARM SAFETY 4 JUST KIDS, presentations by Josie Rudolphi,  Kori Miller, THE TEA TROVE. James W. Hardy, Mondamin, LOESS HILLS PHOTOGRAPHY. Cathie Callaghan, Missouri Valley,  KISCED BY THE SON GARDENS, papermaking, art work; children’s activity: painting gourd bird houses. Dawn Epperson, Magnolia, Sunday FACE PAINTING! Stephanie Albright, Executive Director, Council Bluffs, ANCIENT WISDOM MASSAGE & SPA demonstrations. John & Sandy Carritt, SANDY’S COUNTRY GARDENS, Little Sioux, Iowa, Flower Shop/ Vegetable Booth, hands-on gardening demonstration classes designed for children and youth. FIAHSTON PHOTOGRAPHY, Josh and Daleanne Hinze Moorhead, Ia. Tim Sproul, Connie Betts, HARRISON COUNTY CONSERVATION BOARD, presentation, display, artifacts- buffalo bones.  Royce Erixon, Mondamin, tanned buffalo hide, Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education grant materials. Mark Zack, MARK’S MUSIC AND KARAOKE.  Saturday highlights Rick Powell, Magnolia, country singer and artist. Sunday highlights award-winning singer Sue Murray, Blair Ne.  Cindy Pittz, Magnolia, female aronia farmer SAWMILL HOLLOW FARM Children’s activities: organic farming and planting demonstrations, exploring nature-children’s walk. DiAnn Bane, COUNTRY DREAM ACRES, Babe Spinning Wheel demonstrations hand crafted alpaca, angora, hand spun yarn. Fork in the Road Acoustic Set live music.  Jack Porter, Mondamin, artisan aronia wine making   Jeff Snyder, MISSOURI VALLEY CHAMBER, publicity and entertainment director.

Aronia Berry Festival Schedule

Saturday, September 19th, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

10:00 a.m. Artisans, Festival Activities, Background Music provided by Mark Zack

11:00 a.m. Beginning of Speaker rotations, Children meet at Tipi for Farm Safety 4 Just         Kids children activities, artisanal activities

12 noon: Food and Festival, Children’s activities, Artisanal displays, and Log Cabin       Country Store

1:00 p.m. Children’s Demonstration Activities Gourd’s with Kathy and Prairie Discovery,       Artisanal Displays, Log Cabin Country Store

2:00 p.m. Live Music with Rick Powell, Children’s Activities Farm Safety 4 Just Kids       new topic, artisanal displays

3:00 p.m. Second set of speaker rotations, Festival activities, Children’s activity                              Gardening with Sandy and Nature Walk, Artisanal Demonstrations,

4:00 p.m. Live Music with Josh Evans (fiddler) and Katy Church (singer), Children’s       Activity Prairie Discovery, Artisanal Displays

5:00 p.m. Festival, Farm Safety 4 Just Kids, Artisanal Displays

6:00 p.m. Look forward to Sunday

Sunday, September 20th, 10 a.m to 6 p.m.

10:00 a.m. Festival activities, Artisanal Displays, Background Music provided by Mark Zack

11:00 a.m. Beginning of speaker rotation, Children’s Activity Farm Safety 4 Just Kids,         Artisanal Displays

12 noon: Food and Festival Activities, Children’s activities prairie discovery and face       painting!, Artisanal Displays

1:00 p.m. Live Music Sue Murray, Artisanal Displays, and Log Cabin Country Store

2:00 p.m. Speaker Rotation, Children’s activities Farm Safety 4 Just Kids, Artisanal       Displays

3:00 p.m. Live Music (guitar and vocal) Sue Murray, Children’s Activity Gardening with       Sandy Festival activities, Artisanal Displays

4:00 p.m. Festival, Children Farm Safety 4 Just Kids New Topic, and Live music          featuring acoustical set by members of Fork in the Road

5:00 p.m. Fork in the Road acoustical ensemble live music, festival activities

6:00 p.m. Conclude the day with one last song and look forward to next year

Missouri Valley, Ia. – Berries packed with disease-fighting antioxidants are thriving on a western Iowa farm, with the potential to become the next big health food, according to one researcher.

The black chokeberry, often called by the scientific name aronia melanocarpa, produces deep-purple fruit, about the size of blueberries but with more health benefits. In aronia, the level of anthocyanin, an antioxidant, is about 1,480 milligrams per 100 grams of fresh fruit; in wild blueberries, 486 milligrams; and cranberries, 140 milligrams.

Other researchers have looked at how aronia affects cardiovascular disease, colon and breast cancers, liver failure and obesity, Wu said.

“…to encourage more farmers and get more people involved to create an industry,” Vaughn Pittz said. “It started out just to be more or less a small family project, and it just sort of snowballed.”

MISSOURI VALLEY – Vaughn and Cindy Pittz, along with their son Andrew, planted 207 Aronia berry bushes in 1995 on their land in the Loess Hills.

Thirteen years later, the Sawmill Hollow Organic Farm is the largest Aronia berry plantation in the Midwest and the first in the United States to be managed organically.

All 13,000 berry bushes are cared for by hand without chemicals. Their oldest bushes produce 35 to 40 pounds each season while the newer ones produce around 20 pounds.

“We’ve got something very special here on multiple dimensions,” Andrew said. “First, it’s a great value-added crop, and second, this will be really good for community building in Iowa.”

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