Highbush cranberries stinky but sweet

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 01/08/2015 (3714 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Here’s the scenario: You’re taking a hike though the bush in late summer. You catch a whiff of something that smells distinctly of dirty socks.

You pause and tilt your nose towards your feet, but the smell vanishes. It can’t be your socks. But there it is again, high in the air. Not to worry: it’s just highbush cranberry, ripening with the season and promising a winter full of sweet rose flavour.

Highbush cranberries smell terrible, but their flavour is fantastic. That’s why Canadians from coast to coast have been picking and preserving these plentiful wild berries for centuries. The Viburnum trilobum isn’t a cranberry but earned the name because of the plump red berries that resemble the commercially grown variety.

Picking berries makes for a fun family outing. Look for clusters of red berries on bushes that range from about 1.2 metres to 1.8 metres in height. The leaves resemble maples and turn a gorgeous scarlet colour in late fall. They’re common along ditches or the edges of fields.

Once you find a good spot, you can return annually to collect your crop. Like any wild edible, be sure you know what you’re picking. Keep in mind bears love berries, too. Make lots of noise while you’re in the bush, or play some music as you go along.

Berries tend to be sweeter after a frost, but you’re taking the chance of the birds or bears clearing out your spot if you wait that long. This year, all berries seem to be well ahead of schedule.

Highbush cranberries contain a small, flat white seed that really isn’t palatable in jams. Jelly is where it’s at. Ukrainian Canadians have long been filling jars with this vibrant jelly and serving it with perogies. They have a name for it — kalyna, which refers to both the berries and the jelly. It was a staple in every household a couple of generations ago, because berries were plentiful and free.

When you’re done picking, clean your berries to remove any leaves, stems and twigs. Store them in the refrigerator for a couple of days at most, then make some jelly.

The High Plains Kalyna recipe is named for the Interlake region where my grandparents homesteaded. Highbush cranberries are still plentiful in the area. The trick is to extract as much juice as possible from the berries. I used an electric juicer one year. It did the trick, but made my kitchen look like a crime scene. I’ve decided the most effective methods involve using a strainer bag overnight or a hand-powered fruit press.

 

Shel Zolkewich writes about food, travel and the outdoors when she’s not eating, on the road or playing outside.