I love cranberry relish – but only if it is homemade from fresh cranberries. Canned “cranberry sauce” tastes nothing like the real thing (sort of like canned green beans have little resemblance to fresh ones.) And NOW, at the peak of their harvest season, is the time to enjoy these tart little berries.
Cranberries are are native to northern regions of North America, including Maine, Massachusetts and west to Oregon and Washington. They were much appreciated and beloved by the Native Americans and, later, by the colonists. The Algonquin word for the berry was sassamenesh, meaning “bitter berry,” an apt name for this flavorful, though sour, fruit. Native Americans used cranberries for food, medicine and as a dye. They ate the berries both fresh and dried and made tea from the leaves. One of the most important uses was in making pemmican, a combination of pounded deer meat, cranberries and animal fat that was dried and carried while traveling because it would last for months.
Cranberries grow in low lying boggy areas and do NOT grow in standing water. The bogs are flooded before harvest and the berries, loosened from the vine, float to the surface where they are easy to harvest. The fresh berries you buy in the stores are actually dry harvested.
Cranberries are extremely healthy for you and contain high amounts of antioxidants, vitamin C and fiber. They are considered one of the more important “superfoods” so relish those cranberries!
The best cranberry sauce recipe I know of is out of my Green Market Baking Book . Enjoy!!
Honey Cranberry Sauce
- 1 cup apple cider
- 1/2 cup honey
- 1/4 cup maple syrup
- 2 cinnamon sticks, broken in half
- 1 tablespoon orange zest
- 3 whole cloves
- 3 cups fresh cranberries
- 2 pears, peeled and cut into small pieces
- pinch of salt
- In a saucepan over low heat, combine the cider, honey, maple syrup, spices and orange zest. Cook 5 – 7 minutes
- Turn off heat and allow the sauce to sit 30 minutes, then remove cinnamon sticks and cloves.
- Put the saucepan back on the stove and add the salt, cranberries and pears.
- Cook until the cranberries begin to burst and the pears are tender, about 6 minutes. Cool and serve.