Charlotte Canelli is the library director of the Morrill Memorial Library in Norwood, Massachusetts. Read Charlotte's column in the October 15, 2015 edition of the Norwood Transcript and Bulletin.
Cranberries. They are an odd fruit, aren’t they? Essentially, they must be cooked, dried, or juiced to be palatable.
The berries grow on low evergreen shrubs that creep along the ground. Because they grow in bogs, they are often inaccessible to the wanderer. But they aren’t a berry that we often think about picking as we casually walk or hike New England trails. If we did, as a matter of fact, we’d be sorely disappointed. Even when their skins are richly red, and they are bursting with plumpness, they aren’t a very good snack. It’s interesting that such a tart, acidic, nearly-bitter, strangely-textured fruit could be one of America’s favorites.
That said – cranberries conjure thoughts of holidays, family and sweets. In their raw form, they adorn our wreaths and are strung on holiday trees. In their cooked form, they are America’s accompaniment to our Thanksgiving and Christmas feasts. Juiced, they make up some pretty tasty concoctions like the delicious Scarlett O’Hara and a refreshing Cape Codder.
New Englanders, particularly those of us who live in Massachusetts, regularly drive past cranberry bogs and never think much about the process of the berries becoming Craisins, cranberry juice, or sauce. We take cranberries, to be honest, for granted.
Although Massachusetts is home to over 330 cranberry farms, Wisconsin is the largest producer in this country. Massachusetts is second, but Oregon, Washington, and New Jersey are big cranberry states, too.
Don’t tell the residents of the southern coast of Massachusetts, though! The fall cranberry crop is number one in Massachusetts and earns over $50 million in sales. The cranberry industry employs 5,500 people.
The annual Cranberry Harvest Festival was held this past weekend on the Makepeace Farms property in Wareham. So many people attend each year that latecomers (past noon) must board Wareham school buses and make a two-mile trip into the bog, traveling along Makepeace company roads deep into the heart of the cranberry country.
Gerry and I attended the festival, and we found everything from raw, freshly harvested cranberries, giveaways of Ocean Spray Craisins, tastes of juice, tours of the harvest, and “bog talks.”
It’s a given that cranberries are as central to life on the south coast as sailing and oysters. After all, the state berry of Massachusetts is the cranberry (as the state donut is the Boston Cream.)
We live weekends in our Marion home on the south coast where one of our favorite neighbors is a retired Ocean Spray executive. He speaks fluent "cranberry," of course, and every dinner at their home includes plenty of reference to the fruit. I’ve learned to get an extra smile from him if I add cranberries to any dish or drink I share with him. He told us that every farm at the Cranberry Harvest Festival sells their berries to Ocean Spray. The festival, in fact, is cosponsored by the Cape Cod Cranberry Growers’ Association and the Ocean Spray.
Ocean Spray began as a cooperative between three cranberry growers. Their first product was jellied cranberry sauce in 1930. That was followed up by another favorite American tradition, Cranberry Juice Cocktail. It was 30 years later that they sprung their latest innovation on us - Cran-Apple juice. The rest is history as they develop newer and newer products each year, and they have grown to over 700 families of cranberry farmers across the country.
I bought five pounds of plump, freshly harvested Makepeace Farms cranberries because I had a special jam recipe that I wanted to try from The Preservation Society Home Preserves (2015) by Camilla Wynne. The recipe is called Three Red Fruits. My plan is to give it for presents this late fall and early winter and rename the jam Three Wise Fruits (think of it as play on the wise men theme.) I included pounds of the cranberries to more pounds of deep red, tart frozen cherries and sweet red raspberries. It was a wise choice for a jam. Fortunately, I made plenty for gifts but I have still have some for my family.
If you are looking for a book on cranberries, you needn’t look further than the children’s collection. Many of the Minuteman libraries have the book, Cranberries: Fruit of the Bogs (1994) in their collection. Author Diane Burns explains that cranberries were called the “bog ruby” by Cape Codders. She describes the importance of the fruit to the Algonquin tribe, the arriving Pilgrims, and to both the Wisconsin and Massachusetts farmers.
In the past few decades, cranberries have been promoted as a great source of vitamin dietary fiber. Drinking cranberry juice has been considered a great way to promote urinary tract health for women. Cranberries are being researched for positive effects on cardiovascular and immune system health.
If you are looking for good recipes for fruit smoothies that incorporate the essential goodness of raw cranberries, look no further that The Ultimate Juices and Smoothies Encyclopedia by the editors of iDrink.com.
Many cooking books in the Minuteman collecting include cranberries. Muffins, scones, jams, jellies, and sauces and compotes are found in more recipe books than I can list here. Ozark Pudding Cake in Vintage Cakes (2012) by Julie Richardson (one of my favorite books) includes dried cranberries. Deb Perelman’s The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook (2012) includes cranberries in her Broccoli Slaw. Julie Rosso and Sheila Lukins included several recipes in their 1984 Silver Palate Good Times Cookbook. Cranberry pie, tart, and conserve are standards for all holiday meals.
The Weekend Baker by Abigail Johnson Dodge (2005) is just one of the books with recipes for fruit scones and bread. Let’s face it, in New England, we’d be hard-pressed to find a bakery or breakfast joint without cranberry scones or muffins on the menu.
Wintersweet: Seasonal Desserts to Warm the Home (2014) by Tammy Donroe Inman separates all the best ingredients of the winter season (cranberries, persimmons, pomegranates, cheeses, dried cherries, pumpkin) into chapters of recipes. Of course, the smells of these sweets throughout the house is comforting. The tastes by the fire are even more so!
If you need help finding books in the new Minuteman Library Network Encore catalog, please call the library.
