4 things you may not know about cranberries:
• They're sometimes called bounceberries, because the ripeness is established by how well they bounce off a table.
• British Columbia is the third-largest cranberry-producing area in the world.
• Cranberry plants are pollinated mostly by the domestic honeybee.
• They're perennial plants; some cranberry bogs still in production are more than 80 years old.
2 ways to try cranberries right now:
• In a tart sauce with a mild-flavoured fish like rainbow trout.
• In a modern twist on the traditional Jewish Seder dish haroset. Mix cranberries into your recipe, with nuts, apples, dates, maple syrup and kosher red wine.
1 thing to remember at the grocery store:
• Choose bags that have mostly uniformly bright red berries. They should be plump, shiny, firm and dry, not shrivelled or mushy; remember to remove any stems.
1 essential thing all good cooks know:
• 20 percent of North America's commercial cranberries are used at our Thanksgiving holidays; you'll get the freshest supply then.
1 collectible to scoop up
• An antique pine cranberry scoop, introduced in the 1850s to help workers pick the berries. The first cranberry scoops were wooden baskets with comb-like teeth that would pull the berries off the vines and drop them into the basket.
1 place to flood your cranberry senses:
• Bala, Ontario's annual Cranberry Festival; watch the traditional harvest and taste the flavours.
Read more in Recipes and Country Pantry
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