My Apologies to Cranberries

Food, Nature 3 Minutes

In my house growing up, Thanksgiving always featured the gelatinous cranberry sauce above.  It wiggled on the plate as we passed it around—carefully avoiding my plate, thank you very much!  I turned up my nose and passed it along.  Thankfully when I wed, my husband had a similar revulsion to the stuff.  However, upon researching cranberries for this open and seeing more appetizing versions, I realized I probably misjudged this berry.  So I hereby apologize sincerely and if anyone reading this has a good recipe for homemade cranberry sauce, I would be more than willing to try it out.  Read on for some interesting facts about cranberries from the justfunfacts.com website.

The name cranberry is used to describe tart red berries produced by several plant species.

In Britain, cranberry may refer to the native species Vaccinium oxycoccos, while in North America, cranberry may refer to Vaccinium macrocarpon.

Vaccinium oxycoccos is cultivated in central and northern Europe, while Vaccinium macrocarpon is cultivated throughout the northern United States, Canada and Chile.

Vaccinium oxycoccos is known by the common names small cranberry, bog cranberry, swamp cranberry while Vaccinium macrocarpon is known by the common names large cranberry, American cranberry and bearberry.

Native Americans used the cranberries as a staple as early as 1550.

By 1620 Pilgrims learned how to use cranberries from the Native Americans.

The development of cultivated varieties cranberries occurred only during the past 100 years, making it one of the most recently domesticated fruit crops.

Cranberries are a major commercial crop in the U.S. states of Massachusetts, New Jersey, Oregon, Washington, and Wisconsin, as well as in the Canadian provinces of British Columbia, New Brunswick, Ontario, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Quebec.

Cranberries are low, creeping shrubs or vines that can grow up to 7 feet long and 2 to 8 inches in height.

They have slender, wiry stems that are not thickly woody and have small evergreen leaves.

The flowers are pink, with very distinct reflexed petals, leaving the style and stamens fully exposed and pointing forward. Small flowers appear in June and are pollinated by bees.

The fruit is a berry that is larger than the leaves of the plant; it is initially light green, turning red when ripe. It is edible, but with an acidic taste that usually overwhelms its sweetness.

Berry picking begins in early September and continues until late October. More than 121,255 US tons are produced in the United States annually. Most cranberry products are consumed in the United States and Canada.

Cranberries are a very good source of vitamin C, dietary fiber, and manganese, as well as a good source of vitamin E, vitamin K, copper and pantothenic acid.

The health benefits of cranberries include relief from urinary tract infection (UTI), respiratory disorders, kidney stones, cancer and heart diseases. Cranberries are especially beneficial to the eyes (they significantly improve symptoms of cataracts, macular degeneration, and diabetic retinopathy).

As fresh cranberries are hard, sour, and bitter, about 95% of cranberries are processed and used to make cranberry juice, sauce, compote or jelly.

They are also sold dried and sweetened.

Cranberry juice is usually sweetened or blended with other fruit juices to reduce its natural tartness.

Cranberry sauce is a traditional accompaniment to turkey at Christmas dinner in the United Kingdom, and at Christmas and Thanksgiving dinners in the United States and Canada.

Cranberries are also used in baking (muffins, scones, cakes and breads).

At one teaspoon of sugar per ounce, cranberry juice cocktail is more highly sweetened than even soda drinks that have been linked to obesity.

There are several alcoholic cocktails, including the Cosmopolitan, that include cranberry juice.

The Lenni-lenape Indians of New Jersey called the cranberry “Pakim” meaning ‘bitter berry.’ They used this wild red berry as a part of their food and as a symbol of peace and friendship. The Chippawas called the cranberry “a’ni-bimin,” the Alogonquin called it “atoqua,” and the Naragansetts called it “sasemineash.” Native Americans would eat it raw, mixed in with maple sugar, or with deer meat (as a dried “Pemmican”).

Cranberries were offered to the pilgrims at the first Thanksgiving.

Source: https://justfunfacts.com/

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Published by pat frederick

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168 thoughts on “My Apologies to Cranberries”

  1. From BB: “Results in Alaska’s congressional elections will not be decided until November 23 — two weeks after Election Day — thanks to the state’s new ranked-choice voting system, which delays the tabulation of second- and third-choice selections.

    As of Wednesday morning, challenger Kelly Tshibaka (R) held a narrow lead over incumbent Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK). But Tshibaka’s 44% was not enough to win an outright majority in the four-candidate race. If Murkowski wins enough second-choice votes — including from the 9.5% of voters who chose the lone Democrat in the race — then she will win and retain her Senate seat.

    Likewise in the race for the state’s at-large congressional district. Incumbent Rep. Mary Peltola (D-AK), who took office in a special election earlier this year that was the first to feature the ranked-choice system, only won 47% of first-choice votes. Republican Sarah Palin finished second. The total Republican vote was more than a majority, but ranked-choice meant that Palin split the Republican vote with another GOP candidate, Nick Begich, and likely means that a Democrat will continue to represent a largely conservative state in the U.S. House.

    Second and third choices will only be tabulated Nov. 23. Murkowski, who once retained her seat through a write-in vote campaign after losing the Republican primary in 2010, is seen as a primary driver of, and beneficiary of, the ranked-choice system.”

    Liked by 1 person

  2. Liked by 1 person

  4. EXCERPT: “Iowa voters overwhelmingly passed Public Measure 1 on Tuesday, enshrining the right to keep and bear arms in the state’s constitution and making the passage of new gun control restrictions extremely difficult.

    The amendment passed by a margin of 66 percent to 34 percent. KCRG reports the full language of the amendment:

    ‘Article I of the Constitution of the State of Iowa is amended by adding the following new section: Right to keep and bear arms. Sec. 1A. The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. The sovereign state of Iowa affirms and recognizes this right to be a fundamental individual right. Any and all restrictions of this right shall be subject to strict scrutiny.’

    The Des Moines Register notes that the amendment makes Iowa “the fourth state with ‘strict scrutiny’ language to protect gun rights in its state constitution.”

    https://www.breitbart.com/2nd-amendment/2022/11/09/iowa-voters-pass-public-measure-1-designating-right-bear-arms-fundamental-right/

    Liked by 1 person

  5. SMDH….@ BB: “The first transgender lawmaker was elected to the Minnesota House on Tuesday night after Leigh Finke (D) won the District 66A seat. Finke saw off the challenge of Republican Trace Johnson in the Twin Cities district, Fox 9 reports. The winner quickly took to social media to announce the outcome to the world.

    The LGBTQ Victory Fund, which claims to be “the only national organization dedicated to electing openly LGBTQ people,” says more non-cisgender candidates ran than ever before in 2022. It released a statement outlining:”

    Liked by 1 person

  7. From eilert @ W’s:

    “Gregg Phillips / @greggphillips 11/09/2022 09:53:59
    ID: Not Available
    Truth Social: 109314417619646611
    UPDATE:
    Kari is still winning north of 70% of Election Day voting.
    With about 450,000 ballots still to be counted and Hobbs lead down to 10,000 from 30,000 a few minutes ago, numbers looking good.

    Liked by 1 person

  9. WeThePeople2016
    November 9, 2022 2:17 pm

    I remember reading that Rove spent millions on Shapiro in PA.

    Avatar
    DC_Draino
    @DC_Draino
    ·
    1m
    You know who wants you to blame Trump for last night?

    Paul Ryan, Karl Rove, Mitt Romney, Liz Cheney, Mitch McConnell, Kevin McCarthy, and Ronna McDaniel

    You know who is *directly* responsible for the squandered red wave last night?

    Paul Ryan, Karl Rove, Mitt Romney, Liz Cheney, Mitch McConnell, Kevin McCarthy, and Ronna McDaniel.

    Liked by 1 person

  10. from wolfs

    TheseTruths
    TheseTruthsOnline
    Coyote
    November 9, 2022 14:27

    Gregg Phillips: https://truthsocial.com/@greggphillips

    5 hours ago:

    OPINION:

    Having spent all night in AZ with data teams pouring over scenarios, the odds are that Kari, Mark and Abe all win. Blake is slightly behind the odds.

    Maricopa election officials and Katie Hobbs should be held accountable for the hardware and software screwups.

    41 minutes ago:

    Now that we have some clarity around the remaining numbers in AZ, we are growing increasingly optimistic about the remaining races. Few scenarios exist where Kari doesn’t win by a substantial margin of 75,000+.

    Liked by 1 person

        1. i don’t get that at all…
          desanctimonius is fine where he’s at…
          and wolf recognizes the ploy to lure ron into an early prez run so they can turn fla blue…so not sure what you’re seeing that i’m not

          Like

          1. He’s not placing any blame whatsoever on DeS. Instead, he’s focusing on the big $$$ that is running the show behind the scenes. My point being: DeS already should have known that they would play him and been prepared and he KNEW he fucked up the day he looked all constipated during the debate…..if he had any honor….well, you know. Add on his purposeful distancing of himself from Trump and…..W is ignoring all of that.

            Liked by 1 person

            1. i don’t get that at all and I’ve been reading there every day–he has desant #…imo
              he knows who desant’s mega backers are and they ARE NOT MAGA backers…

              Like

  12. From Fox: “Democrats in Minnesota rode a blue wave to victory Tuesday, winning both houses of the state Legislature and the governor’s race to take full control of state government for the first time in eight years.

    Single-party control of the state was confirmed Wednesday morning when Republican Senate Majority Leader Jeremy Miller conceded that his party had lost its majority to Senate Democrats.”

    Liked by 1 person

  13. Wolf Moon | Threat to Demonocracy
    Wolf Moon | Threat to DemonocracyOnline
    Admin
    Wolf
    November 9, 2022 15:28

    MTG comes out swinging for Trump!

    .@RepMTG Calling Out The People Blaming President Donald Trump For Last Night

    “That is a lazy, pathetic, wimpy, easy mindset.”

    “I’m not going to have that today. It needs to end and I’m sick and tired of it.” pic.twitter.com/UwLCVeou9U

    — The Columbia Bugle 🇺🇸 (@ColumbiaBugle) November 9, 2022

    https://valiantnews.com/2022/11/mtg-lazy-pathetic-wimpy-to-blame-trump-for-limited-midterms-gains-it-needs-to-end/

    Liked by 2 people

  16. That picture of tiny leaf cranberries is so pretty, I had to save it on my laptop.

    If I had all the money in the world, I’d have a wreath of fresh small leaf cranberries flown down, to make a wreath on my Thanksgiving (and maybe Christmas) dinner table and front door.

    I’d spray them with fixatives and try to preserve them for Christmas and even New Years.

    I’d also get a half bushel or so of the berries sent for cooking and stringing on the fresh flown in perfectly shaped 9 foot Christmas tree – alternating the berry strings with popcorn strings – with of course, cinnamon stick bundles and gingerbread cookies on the tree.

    Liked by 1 person

        1. I never decorate the tree…lol
          we divide the chores…hubby decorates it Christmas Eve, then New Year’s Day, I take it all down and put the decorations away.

          Liked by 1 person

            1. we always go around mid month to get our tree…they can be quite expensive…
              last year we were surprised–there were PURPLE trees–apparently that’s a thing now? spray painting real trees?
              what a disgrace!

              Liked by 1 person

              1. Yuck. That’s like flavored coffee. And those women who have had lots of plastic surgery or dye their hair coal black or pink…or tattoos and piercings.

                Liked by 1 person

  21. WeThePeople2016
    WeThePeople2016
    November 9, 2022 6:57 pm

    Massive fraud stories coming out about PA.

    PENNSYLVANIA 🚨 “With polls now officially closed in PA, poll watchers in Delaware County have reported scanning issues at the Union Power Plant Central Counting Center in Chester. Gregory Stenstrom, a Navy veteran and forensic computer scientist, told National File that he observed two stacks of roughly 500 ballots being run through a scanner twice.” (National File) @inmagnaexcitatio

    https://t.me/THEREALTORIABROOKE/27869

    Like

  22. I am adding a short daily prayer to the board. I would invite each of you, if you wish, to also add one or maybe two of your own liking. I do not want to stifle anyone but please limit yourself to one or two religious postings. here’s one I found that I liked.

    Like

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