Cranberry Picking

In September we did some cranberry picking. There are both high bush and low bush cranberries here. The high bush are quite nice for making Cranberry Wassail. They have pits in them so they must be boiled down in order to use the juice from them. We use the low bush for all kinds of things. They are quite tart by themselves but blend nicely in breads, cookies, pancakes, and waffles. Blueberries also grow here but we came back to late in the season and they were all shriveled up. The blueberries are hard to come by. There are a few good blueberry spots but they are mostly kept secret. Here are a few pictures of our low bush cranberry picking!

This is what the cranberries look like on the bushes that grow right next to the ground.

Some nice big cranberries still on the bush.

Our little helpers filling their buckets and bags.

Marina kept picking the cranberries and saying, "Come here you little cranberry guys!"

The girls were pretending these fallen trees were horses they were riding.

A nice view of a grass lake we were picking beside.

Yum!

She looks like she's up to something!

All warn out. It's time to go home.

Our bountiful harvest!
We had a fun day of picking with each other. We all came home with lots of mosquito bites though. The mosquitoes and black flies were terrible that day. One nice thing about it getting colder is they are no longer around. Sadly the cranberries have frozen and are no longer around either. In fact we just had our first snow fall this week. It didn't stick though. I am glad as I am not quite ready for the long winter ahead.

If you have access to cranberries, here is a great recipe I have adapted for using cranberries in cookies instead of chocolate because of the migraine diet I am on. We actually prefer the cranberries instead of the chocolate anyways.

Cranberry Oatmeal ScotchiesMakes 5 Dozen
1 cup butter
1 cup shortening
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
4 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
2 cups flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. cinnamon
6 cups. oats
1 regular package butterscotch chips
1 to 2 cups frozen cranberries

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream together butter and shortening. Add the sugars. Gradually mix in the eggs and vanilla. In seperate bowl mix flour, soda, salt, and cinnamon. Gradually add to creamed mixture. Fold in oats and butterscotch chips. Refrigerate dough 1 hour. I usually stir in the frozen cranberries right before I bake so they don't cause the dough to become red all over or become mushy in the dough. Roll into balls and evenly space on greased cookie sheets. Bake for 10 minutes. These are better slightly under cooked than overcooked as they firm up after they cool, so I start keeping my eye on them at about 8 minutes depending on the oven. Enjoy!!!