Thankful for Cranberries!

Thankful for Cranberries!

(with a Cranberry Book Recommendation)

Week 3.  November—A Month of Gratitude

by Alice Jane-Marie Massa

                I am thankful for a cornucopia of cranberry treats.  When I moved to Wisconsin in 1991, I did not realize that I was moving to the state  that produces the most cranberries.  Additionally, Wisconsin produces more than half of the world’s supply of cranberries.  In this pre-Thanksgiving blog post, I am ready to toast the cranberry with, of course, a glass of cranberry wine—a festive wine for the holiday season. 

                Even when I was very young, I enjoyed cranberries.  For my extended family Thanksgiving gatherings of the 1950s and 1960s, one of the dishes which my mother faithfully made was the homemade cranberry sauce—fragrant, pretty, and delicious as a side for the turkey.  In later decades, my mother and I also made an easy, do-ahead-of-time recipe for cranberry relish which my sister plans to make again this year as part of the trimmings for her family’s Thanksgiving feast. 

                Through the years, at numerous parties, one of my favorite punches has been –you guessed it—cranberry punch.  Over the centuries, the use and production of cranberries has significantly evolved:  for example, in 1963, Ocean Spray [trademark] first marketed Cranapple Juice.  Yes, I like the variety of cranberry juices—juice blends–which became available in recent years.  In my November 6, 2013 WORDWALK blog post, I shared one of my very favorite recipes–“Cranberry Calico Cake,” which is really a sweet bread that may be served with or without the “Cranberry Calico Frosting.” 

                Although homemade is the best choice, I must admit that I also greatly enjoy the canned jellied cranberry sauce and the whole-berry cranberry sauce.  (Ocean Spray first manufactured cans of cranberry sauce in 1912.)  In addition to eating the canned cranberry sauces plain, I will also combine the canned sauce with fresh apples, fresh oranges, applesauce, and/or celery.  Further, I too much enjoy the chocolate-covered Craisins, which happily came onto store shelves in 1993; however, my sister and I first found these delectable treats as a local variety at a store near Toma, Wisconsin, on the way home from a trip to Minnesota.  Ever since, Craisins have been a favorite snack of mine.

                Foods and beverages aside, would you believe that one of my favorite bar soaps is cranberry-scented?  When selecting a fragrance of foaming, hand soap, my first choice is always cranberry.

                Tomorrow morning, the wind chill is to be around zero—great weather for a mug of cranberry herbal tea!  I think I will be dreaming of a cranberry muffin or cranberry scone to accompany the hot tea.  However, for me, cranberries are not a seasonal item:  I enjoy all things cranberry throughout the four seasons of the Midwest.

                Can you believe that I even have a cranberry book recommendation for you?  If you want to tempt your taste buds and fill your appetite for some very interesting history surrounding the cranberry, I do highly recommend the 142-page book MASSACHUSETTS CRANBERRY CULTURE:  A HISTORY FROM BOG TO TABLE, by Robert S. Cox and Jacob Walker, copyright 2012.  (For patrons of the BARD program of the National Library Service, the audio book, recorded at the Perkins Library, is DBM 1401, with a reading time of five hours and twenty minutes.)You will learn that the popularity of the cranberry came to fruition in the 1840s.  Despite the title, the book contains numerous references to the growth of cranberry production in Wisconsin.  For example, cranberries from Green Bay, Wisconsin, were first sent to New York in 1834.  A piece of trivia for you—Henry David Thoreau preferred the water harvesting of the “floating fruit.”  Besides the detailed descriptions of how the cranberry grows and is harvested, the history and culture stemming from the cranberry bogs will keep you turning the pages of this book.

                I hope you have enjoyed this cranberry bog—I mean “blog.”  Additionally, I hope you have some cranberry sauce or cranberry relish on your Thanksgiving plate.

Best wishes for a happy Thanksgiving week!

Alice and Leader Dog Willow

November 19, 2022, Saturday

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