Contact: Adam Nemitz (608) 387-9812; Christian Krueger, office (608) 423-1327, cell (608) 212-1816, ckrueger@phyto-sol.com
Madison – The overcast sky is clearing as a wave of moderate thunderstorms moves off to the east. On rolling, sandy terrain northeast of Tomah, in the heart of cranberry country, rows of short shrubs called aronia have reached two feet in height.
Although Adam Nemitz, who planted the bushes two years ago, says they are “in their infancy,” the more vigorous bushes have already started to bear aronia fruits – clusters of blue-black berries with a passing resemblance to large blueberries. When the bushes reach eight feet in height, each can bear about 20 pounds of a fruit that is sometimes touted, in this nutrition-conscious era, as the “next superfruit.”
The optimist would hope we are looking at Wisconsin’s next specialty crop; but the realist would see a 20-acre experiment with an uncertain future. Nemitz is an optimist – both his family and that of his wife, Sandy, have been growing cranberries for generations around here.
Farmers by definition are optimists, but Nemitz recognizes that success is hardly assured.
Nemitz first heard of aronia in 2013 from a fruit-grower’s magazine. “I did not know what aronia was, so I did some research,” he says. “It is machine harvestable, and that piqued my interest, and I always wanted to diversify.”
His farm, the JR Nemitz Cranberry Co., Inc., has 83 acres of cranberry marshes, part of a Wisconsin industry that is the nation’s largest. Yields have benefited by the introduction of several varieties developed at UW-Madison, but abundant harvests have put downward pressure on prices since the 1990s.
The experiment with aronia was a business decision, Nemitz says. “I wanted to spread the risk with another crop; we already had the land, so there was not a lot of investment to get started.”
Several other growers in the area have planted aronia, but the market for aronia remains undeveloped, Nemitz says.
As Midwest farmers discuss forming a cooperative to promote aronia, they accept that the crop’s success will depend on marketing, which in turn will rely on letting people know the health benefits of a flavorful fruit that grows on native shrubs once called chokeberries. “I usually hear the taste described as astringent and/or earthy,” says Nemitz, “with a hint of sweet in the first bites and an earthy finish.”
Nemitz or other cranberry growers know the sales value of scientifically valid health claims. Cranberries benefited substantially after their reputation for fighting urinary tract infections was shown to be the consequence of a plant chemistry that deters bacteria from attaching to cells in the urinary tract.
So it’s no accident that Nemitz’s companion in the aronia field is Christian Krueger, CEO of Complete Phytochemical Solutions, which applies expertise developed at UW-Madison to complex questions of plant chemistry.
Complete Phytochemical Solutions (CPS) was founded in 2010 by Krueger, a research program manager at the Department of Animal Science, Jess Reed, a professor in the department, and Amy Howell, an associate research scientist from Rutgers University. Located in Cambridge, Wisconsin, the company specializes in plant secondary compounds. Although usually present in small quantities, phytochemicals are a major reason we’re told to eat our vegetables – and fruits.
The five employees at CPS include Andrew Birmingham, director of analytic services, who is a graduate of the UW-Madison masters in biotechnology program.
Phytochemicals include anti-oxidants, vitamins, and drug-like substances such as salicin, the pain-relieving compound from which aspirin was synthesized. Pigments also qualify: The dark anthocyanins may explain the health benefits of red wine.
By delving deeper into the chemistry, he adds, “We can move beyond generalizations so the product does not fall just under an umbrella like ‘anti-oxidants,’ but offers a more specific chemistry.”
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