Recipes from the bog
Since Thanksgiving is rapidly approaching, it seemed appropriate to offer some recipes featuring cranberries, both fresh, and dried. We all know the name, "Ocean Spray", and that's probably the company that comes to mind when we think of cranberries. They have been in business for over 75 years, and as an agricultural cooperative, they are owned by a group of about 600 cranberry growers throughout North America. The Ocean Spray web site contains some great recipes, and some fascinating information on cranberries, the way they are grown, annual consumption, and much more. A favorite piece of trivia from the web site is that cranberries bounce. In the 1880s, a New Jersey grower named John "Peg Leg" Webb discovered that small pockets of air inside the fruit cause the fresh fruit to bounce. At least one person in our house did not learn to appreciate cranberries until well into adulthood. Perhaps it was the discovery that cranberries don't only exist as "jelly" that comes in cans? As evidenced by today's recipes for bread, scones, chutney, and salad we now enjoy using either fresh or dried cranberries, and in some instances, both appear together. Perhaps we finally understand why Americans consume around 400 million pounds of cranberries every year. The bread recipe is from the Ocean Spray web site, and the remaining recipes are from www.epicurious.com.
