Cranberries

Mom makes the best cranberry salad – full of coarsely ground cranberry, celery, chopped walnuts, orange juice, and just the right blend of sweet and tart. It would be easy enough to open a can of Ocean Spray Whole Cranberry Sauce to serve with turkey dinner, but Mom makes her doctored version of the Joy of Cooking recipe whenever we gather for a family Thanksgiving feast. Not only is the salad tasty, but it brings with it a host of memories of Thanksgiving dinners in Alaska, Southern California, and Northern California, and all the dear people gathered around the table.

The cranberries we serve for the traditional Thanksgiving celebration are native to acid bogs in the cooler latitudes of the northern hemisphere. Vaccinium macrocarpon is in the Ericaceae, or Heath family, and native to North America. Cranberries are a low, evergreen shrub or vine 6 – 8 inches high and 3 - 7 feet long. Leaves are oblong-elliptical to ¾ “ long. Flowers are dark pink in lateral clusters with style and stamens fully exposed, and pollinated by bees. The fruit is a berry about 5/16” long, which is initially white and then darkens to a deep red.

My brother-in-law (he and my sister are gentlemen ranchers in Oregon) spent a season farming cranberries in British Columbia early in his career. They used the water harvesting method, where the bog is flooded with 6-8 inches of water, the berries raked or beaten from the vine and then skimmed off the top. Take a look at the process - interesting!