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REGIONAL— This year’s bumper berry crop continues, as a bonanza of wild cranberries are just waiting for enterprising pickers who aren’t afraid to get their feet wet. These …
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REGIONAL— This year’s bumper berry crop continues, as a bonanza of wild cranberries are just waiting for enterprising pickers who aren’t afraid to get their feet wet. These aren’t the high bush cranberries, Viburnum trilobum, which aren’t a true cranberry and are found growing as a mid-sized shrub on uplands in our region.
The true wild cranberry, Vaccinium oxycoccos, is a low-growing vine that winds its way through sphagnum moss in area bogs and it appears they’ve responded to the same triggers that produced a bumper crop of blueberries and other wild fruits this year. While these diminuitive plants can be hard to spot as they’re often engulfed by sphagnum moss, the cranberries are often found lying on top of sphagnum hummocks, looking like somewhat smaller versions of the cultivated cranberries you find at the grocery store.
In a typical year, you’d practically starve to death looking for cranberries, but in a good year, like this one, you can pick gallons with a bit of effort. And the berries don’t even need to be red. There are several varieties of cranberries out there, some are red, some are silver, and others are multi-colored. But they all cook up red and have that tang that makes the best cranberry sauce you’ve ever tasted. Served up this Thanksgiving with a locally-harvested wild turkey and some winter squash from the garden, and you’ll have the most traditional holiday feast imaginable.
It’s definitely worth the effort.