Cranberries growing at the Brooklyn Botanical Garden…
Indigenous to the Americas, cranberries are just one of the countless culinary gifts (with health benefits!) indigenous American peoples cultivated throughout cooler climate parts of North America (northeast especially) and shared with European settlers…
National Cranberry “Relish” Day is Nov 22nd Each Year:
LAST year i had never heard of “cranberry relish”and was perplexed as to why it has an annal holiday associated with it… but what a difference a year makes:
I am grateful to have learned what it is in a recent NPR story is about the late journalist Susan Stamberg, who passed away in October 2025. Susan was famous for sharing her mother-in-law's recipe for "Mama Stamberg's Cranberry Relish" every Thanksgiving for nearly 50 years, making it a beloved NPR tradition. The audio segment describes recipe as tangy and with a shocking (naturally) pink color from the combined ingredients of: raw cranberries, a small (red?) onion, sugar (?!), sour cream, and horseradish.
Her widely shared tradition began in 1971 and continued for nearly 50 years until her death in October 2025.
The recipe, a family tradition, is a unique and tangy relish with a shocking pink color, often shared on air with guests to try.
The recipe: It includes raw cranberries, a small onion, sugar, sour cream, and horseradish. The cranberries and onion are ground together, and the other ingredients are mixed in before freezing.
For the longest time in my family for decades for Thanksgiving we just always had old school cranberry SAUCE but maybe i’ll get on the relish bandwagon this year — i dunno. the ingredient combo seems kinda cray to me (savor tooth that i am i know i’m not gonna want to add the sugar)…
And National “Eat a Cranberry” Day is always on the 23rd…
I love the idea of exploring ways to eat cranberries in a variety of ways includingraw, cooked, in dishes, and of course juiced as a key ingredient in COCKTAILS!….
🎁 GIVE THE GIFT OF THE FOOD GRIOT’S CULINARY (& COCKTAIL!) CREATIVITY TO YOUR FAVE FOODIE and/or DRINKS lover THIS YEAR ! 🎁 …
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