Cranberries are a festive fall fruit! I love throwing them in salads and sweet treats and you can’t have Thanksgiving without homemade cranberry sauce! I haven’t posted a blog post highlighting seasonal fruits and vegetables in quite sometime and decided I needed to start this up again; and I couldn’t let this year pass up without featuring this bold and beautiful, tart fruit.
Below you will find some interesting and useful information about cranberries. Also, don’t forget to check out the recipe round up at the bottom, with recipes from all over the web bursting with this festive fall fruit!
Once called ‘crane berry’ by early settlers, due to its blossom’s resemblance to the sandhill crane,
cranberries are most popular at Thanksgiving. However, this little, red fruit packs a powerful flavor and
health punch and is very versatile. This holiday season; take extra notice and enjoy this festive fruit.
Cranberries are native to North America and were used by Native Americans and early settlers in a
variety of uses. From being cooked with honey, mixed in with deer meat, or crushed and used to dye
fabric; it wasn’t until the early 1800’s that this wild berry was farmed and cultivated on a large scale.
Originally picked by hand, cranberry growers later developed a process to flood the cranberry bogs with water; a unique wet harvesting technique that is still used today.
Studies have shown that cranberries have exceptional antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and anti-cancer
properties. They are an excellent source of vitamin C, fiber, and potassium. Cranberries provide a
natural antibiotic and have also been shown to prevent stomach ulcers and acid reflux disease.
Fresh cranberries have a short harvesting season and are available from October through December.
When selecting fresh cranberries, choose plump berries that are deep red in color. They should be firm
to the touch and will bounce slightly if dropped. Fresh cranberries can be stored in sealed packaging in
the refrigerator for one month or can be frozen for later use for 12-18 months.
Fresh cranberries can be enjoyed in variety of ways. They make wonderful additions to breads and
muffins, made into homemade jam, or transformed into a fresh cranberry sauce that can be used to not
only top turkey, but pork, chicken and even cheesecake! Other popular ways to enjoy cranberries are
in the form of cranberry juice or dried. Similar to raisins, dried cranberries are sometimes referred to as
craisins. Dried cranberries can be added to cookies, trail mixes, or tossed in a salad.
Looking for festive recipes to serve at holiday dinner parties this season? Want to incorporate cranberries in holiday baking? Or simply, add a boost of nutrition to your daily meals? Check out these 15 cranberry filled recipes from Kitchen Concoctions and around the web:
Cranberry Salad (Taste and Tell)
Honey Maple Cranberry Sauce (Kitchen Concoctions)
Cranberry Bliss Cookies (Gimme Some Oven)
Festive Fall Salad with Creamy Poppy Seed Dressing (Kitchen Concoctions)
Apple Cranberry Oatmeal Muffins (Good Life Eats)
Green Bean Salad with Cranberries, Walnuts and Feta (Kitchen Concoctions)
Cranberry Eggnog Crumb Muffins (Lick the Bowl Good)
Pumpkin Granola Bars (Kitchen Concoctions)
Oatmeal Cranberry White Chocolate Chip Cookies (Sugarfoot Eats)
Cranberry Mimosa (Kitchen Concoctions)
Dark Chocolate-Coated Cranberry Cake Bites (An Edible Mosaic)
Cranberry Pumpkin Bread (Kitchen Concoctions)
Lemon Ginger Cranberry Cream Scones (Bake Me Away)
Cranberry Orange Pancakes (Kitchen Concoctions)
Cranberry-Jalapeno Cream Cheese Dip (Mel’s Kitchen Cafe)
Disclosure: I originally wrote this article for meal planning/recipe site Food on the Table in the fall of 2011. It has appeared in several publications including The News Guard.
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