The Madman and his Cranberries

            The sun is creeping towards its lowest point in the sky. The madman is just waiting for its shadow to hit his Solstice pig. That signals the shortest day of the year. The sun will rise at 7:12 a.m. and set at 4:22 p.m. If you want to follow it, here’s a chart. As typical of this year, the site I usually use, managed by the Naval Observatory, is down for maintenance and has been for a while – so this one will have to do.

Ancient civilizations celebrated the shortest day of the year with various festivals. Yule, the shortest day, has a spot on the Celtic Wheel of Life. A lot of the Celtic celebrations included a bonfire (no humorless fire marshals back then).

Another Excuse for a Fire

The madman also tries to celebrate with a fire (would you expect anything less?). I’m not sure if he is celebrating the shortest day or its counterpart, the longest night. Besides plants, the madman has always been fascinated by the stars – and that fascination has rubbed off on me. We spend countless hours staring at the skies: watching constellations and counting satellites, airplanes and shooting stars – but that’s a story for another time. I’ll just mention that in 2020 we have noticed an interesting change: some nights we count more satellites than planes, again, another story. Of course, the madman blames everything on COVID – this is not a normal year.

By this time our garden beds are cleaned up. The leaves are gathered. The tools are collected and waiting for winter maintenance. We are ready for winter.

In a normal year, our tree is up and decorated at this time. We should be decorating the house and preparing for guests. But, as we keep saying, this is not a normal year.

Let’s Talk About the Tree

Last year we told you how our tradition of Ed’s Tree Farm ended. And, this year, with being under quarantine, we simply couldn’t go out. But, fortunately, we still have the madman’s tree in a bucket. It managed to survive last year’s drought. Didn’t grow much, but it survived. And, it still makes the perfect Christmas tree.

But, we are having a bit of an issue with the cranberry-popcorn garland. Every year, on the day after Thanksgiving, the madman and I start stringing the garland. He pops a fresh batch of popcorn, puts on a good movie and we go to work. Popcorn, Cranberry, Popcorn, Cranberry, Popcorn, Cranberry…the madman and his cranberries have become a solid tradition in our house. But, this year our plans were delayed. We couldn’t get cranberries.

Where are the Cranberries?

Beginning in October, we put whole cranberries on our shopping lists (yes, we are still doing shop-at-home and the madman and his cranberries are very important). And every week, we got the same notation “out of stock”. So the madman did some research.

Seems that cranberries are somewhat scarce this year. As typical of 2020, it was a rough year for cranberries and their growers in New England and Wisconsin. First, a series of late spring frosts cut down on pollination, leaving fewer berries in the field. Then, the crop in Wisconsin faced cooler than normal temperatures in August, while the crop in New England was not helped by the summer drought. Cranberries like it wet. On top of all this, harvesting the berries is labor-intensive – COVID is definitely not a friend of cranberries: one infection and a whole workforce goes down.

As I told you before, the madman loves bogs. Remember our post on the Bog Walk, a former cranberry field left to go natural? He was in heaven. So, I guess it’s just natural that he would be fascinated by cranberries. They grow in bogs.

Native Fruit

Vaccinium macrocarpon is native to North America. In fact, it is one of the few native fruits grown commercially in the United States. Native Americans used the cranberry as food, medicine and even as a plant dye. When European colonists appeared, they were already familiar with cranberry’s cousin, Vaccinium oxycoccus. These grew in the bogs of Central Europe.

The cranberry is an interesting fruit with very specific growing requirements. It needs the acidic soil and high moisture of bogs to grow. The plant itself is a low growing shrubby vine. Because it needs a cold dormancy period, its range is restricted to the northern United States and southern Canada. In the spring, the crane shaped (crane berry, cranberry –get the connection?) flowers are pollinated by bees. In fact, many growers keep hives near their bogs. The berries ripen from mid-September to November. Interestingly, early laws in some areas prohibited the picking or possession of ripe cranberries before September 20 – even imposing a fine on those in violation.

Farming the Wild Berry

In the 1800s, Henry Hall of Dennis, Massachusetts, began transplanting and cultivating the wild cranberries in his bogs. Back then, cranberries were harvested by hand – a method called dry harvesting. Fresh cranberries harvested this way have a short shelf life, but they were readily available around Thanksgiving. Henry and his fellow-growers had a short season: around 6 weeks.

In 1872, an engineer named W. T. Cosgrain suggested flooding the fields until cranberries rose to the surface. Cranberry rakes could then be used to remove the berries from the vines – raking the flood, it was called. The berries were easier to harvest, but still had a short shelf-life.

Marcus Urann – A Game-Changer

Enter Marcus L Urann. In the early 1900’s, he revolutionized the cranberry industry. A lawyer-turned-cranberry-grower, he began to can and juice the berries, making them available year around. But, it wasn’t until the middle of the Century that the cranberry industry really took off. Harvesting the berries required a lot of hands. With the wet harvest, the berries which naturally contain small pockets of air floated to the top. They still needed to be separated from the vines by a hand rake.

Cranberries Take Off

When machines were introduced that separated the berries from the vines in a flooded field, there was no stopping the cranberry industry. Who hasn’t heard of the health benefits of cranberries? Who hasn’t tried to purge their system with cranberry juice? Although for our mothers, cranberries were for holiday meals only, we are now well aware of the health benefits. They are fat free, cholesterol free, low in sugar, high in fiber and contain those wonderful anti-oxidants that the madman talks about when he gives lectures on eye health. In fact, I think I’m going to get a lecture right now – he saw my Dr Pepper can.

But, our current dilemma is that we cannot get cranberries. I keep telling him that it is already mid-December: tradition be damned! If we don’t skip the berries and go with just the popcorn for the garland, it will be Christmas Eve before we get the tree up.

Hold the Presses!

Even in a COVID year, miracles can happen. Our friend Bill just stopped by with a bag of cranberries. The madman is happily popping popcorn. I’ll start looking for a movie. Looks like one of our holiday traditions has been rescued. The madman and his cranberries!

First a cup of hot chocolate, then some stringing.