Several months ago, our good friends Kenny and Anne told us that there were cranberry bogs very close to where we live in Dominion, and that they ripen in mid-October. Well, it's that time now, so we reminded them. They took us out to what appeared an unlikely spot, through an old cemetery, out to the edge of the cliffs by the ocean.
It didn't look like much, but then Anne dropped down and started picking. Cranberries are everywhere! They grow very close to the ground, and are partly hidden by a little bit of their own foliage. You know you're on cranberries when you hear popping under your feet like bubble wrap - cranberries are hollow.
Sister Johnson gets right with it! Just spread the foliage back a little - there are no stickers thank goodness - and there they are. Easy pickin's.
The bogs don't look like much, a very wild look right at the edge of the ocean. It's a little windy and you can tell that fall is coming on, but it's a great day for picking. Knee pads are a big help, and luckily Kenny has brought several pairs.
There they are, just ready for picking.
The berries are very dense on the plants, you can be in one spot and pick for 20 minutes and not have to move hardly at all.
Kenny has a cranberry picker. It's a little scoop with tines that you drag through the vines and it pulls the berries off. You can get a lot of berries very quickly, but it does pick up more grass and debris than hand picking. I borrow the scoop, and in less than an hour we have 2 big bowls of cranberries, which is plenty for us. This spot is known for berries, and I hope that more people come out and pick over the next few weeks rather than let them go to waste.
Sister Johnson and Anne have discussed the proper way to make Cranberry Jam. First the berries have to be cleaned, the grass and debris removed, the undersize and squashed ones removed. This is a rather easy process since cranberries float. Once cleaned and rinsed, Sister J cooks them in a pan with orange juice, grated orange peel, little cubes of pears and sugar.
Doesn't really take much cooking, this is a pretty easy process. They are stirred frequently. As the cranberries boil, they split to absorb the sugar and other flavors. They are not cooked down to mush, so there's a lot of texture in the jam.
On the way back with the berries, I score 6 pint canning jars at the local Dollarama, just about what we need. Unfortunately we didn't bring our canning supplies from home, which include a nice funnel, so it's a little messy to get the jam in the jars, but Sister J handles it quite nicely.
We wash, then heat the jars in the oven, boil the lids, just like we do when making grape juice at home in the steam juicer. The hot mixture is enough to seal the jars, and we hear them all "ping" as they cool.
We have just enough jam to fill our 6 bottles, plus a small amount left over to spread on a few slices of toast. As usual, Sister J has got the mixture just right: tart, not excessively sweet, and it jells to jam texture when cooled for just the right spreadability. These are coming home with us for sure!
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