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National Eat a Cranberry Day 2024

They may be a little tart, but they’ve got Vitamin C and the most natural antioxidants of any berry. Today is National Eat a Cranberry Day, so get ready to pucker up.

Blooming 🌿 In 🔴 Gratitude

I made cranberry sauce, and when it was done put it into a dark blue bowl for the beautiful contrast. I was thinking, doing this, about the old ways of gratitude: Indians thanking the deer they’d slain, grace before supper, kneeling before bed. I was thinking that gratitude is too much absent in our lives now, and we need it back, even if it only takes the form of acknowledging the blue of a bowl against the red of cranberries. ~Elizabeth Berg

Okay, this is a bit sad for me. Given my current A1C diet, I can no longer do what I used to.

What did you do that you can’t anymore, Rob?

Quite a few things, actually, but at this point the thing I miss most is the ability to crack open a can of cranberry sauce and just eat it.

Yes, I imagine you’re repulsed by that, but don’t be so judgmental. Some people drink pickle juice right out of the jar (I’m not one of them).

Even so, I can’t really afford to even have a single slice of that glorious deep red jelly this time around. More’s the pity because I really, really like it.

I must admit that I also love Craisins and all the products featuring cranberry mixes such as CranApple and GranGrape juices.

So, I still have options. What might they be? Well, I asked my buddy (ChatGPT) to tell me what I can make that would be safe for my A1C diet.

Cranberry Chia Jam Ingredients: 2 cups fresh cranberries 1/4 cup water 2 tbsp chia seeds Sweetener of choice (stevia, monk fruit, or a small amount of honey/maple syrup) Instructions: Simmer cranberries and water until they burst (about 10 minutes). Mash lightly, then stir in chia seeds and sweetener. Let cool; it will thicken into a jam-like texture. Uses: Spread on whole-grain toast, mix with yogurt, or use as a topping for oatmeal.	Cranberry Salsa Ingredients: 1 cup fresh cranberries 1/2 jalapeño, finely chopped 1/4 red onion, finely diced 1/4 cup cilantro, chopped Juice of 1 lime Sweetener (optional, to taste) Instructions: Chop cranberries finely or pulse in a food processor. Mix all ingredients together and adjust seasoning. Uses: Serve with veggie sticks, grilled chicken, or as a salad topper.
Roasted Cranberries Ingredients: 2 cups fresh cranberries 1-2 tbsp olive oil or avocado oil Sprinkle of cinnamon and a touch of sweetener (optional) Instructions: Toss cranberries with oil, cinnamon, and sweetener if desired. Roast at 400°F (200°C) for 10-15 minutes, until they start to caramelize. Uses: Add to salads, pair with roasted vegetables, or mix with quinoa.	Cranberry Smoothie Ingredients: 1/2 cup fresh cranberries 1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt 1/2 frozen banana (optional for sweetness) 1/4 avocado (for creaminess) 1/2 cup unsweetened almond milk Sweetener to taste Instructions: Blend all ingredients until smooth. Adjust consistency with more almond milk. Uses: Great as a snack or breakfast option.
Cranberry Relish Ingredients: 2 cups fresh cranberries 1 orange (zest and juice) Sweetener to taste (stevia, monk fruit, or erythritol) Instructions: Blend cranberries, orange zest, and juice in a food processor. Adjust sweetness to taste. Uses: A fresh alternative to cranberry sauce, perfect with lean proteins.	Cranberry Energy Bites Ingredients: 1 cup nuts (almonds or walnuts) 1/2 cup fresh cranberries 1/4 cup unsweetened shredded coconut 1-2 tbsp sweetener (optional) 1 tbsp chia seeds or ground flaxseeds Instructions: Pulse all ingredients in a food processor until the mixture holds together. Roll into small balls and chill. Uses: A low-carb snack to curb hunger.

Tips for A1C-Friendly Cranberry Dishes: Limit Added Sugars: Use natural sweeteners like stevia, monk fruit, or erythritol. Avoid cane sugar and high-fructose sweeteners. Pair with Healthy Fats or Proteins: This helps stabilize blood sugar. Portion Control: Cranberries are naturally tart, so small amounts go a long way in flavoring dishes.

Green 👉🏽 White 👉🏻 Red 👉🏿 Eat!

CRANBERRY | How Does It Grow?

Like most people who have ever seen a cranberry anywhere but inside a can of dark red jelly, I picture cranberries floating in a bog. That’s all the more I knew.

Turns out, they grow on vines in the sandy soil. Who knew? The farmers flood the fields to get the berries to float up for easy harvesting. Who knew?

I mean, who even figured out that cranberries float? That’s wild. We’ve been so separated from what used to be commonplace.

I suppose that’s the price of industrialization. Fortunately, it looks like we might be coming out the other side of all that.

The great thing about the Information Age is that life can be curiosity-driven instead of niche-finding.

Granted, finding your niche is important. Everybody is good at something. If you can find that thing that you are uniquely suited to do and you happen to like doing that, you’re golden.

What I’m talking about is that we’re finally moving past the time when you’re stuck in a factory or an office for decades until you retire and die of a heart attack five minutes later.

People can more easily direct their own path these days, and it’s only becoming easier with the advent of AI. A lot of the drudgery is going to be automated.

Whatever your niche is, you’re going to have the ability to do what you do and excel at it because a lot of the random, peripheral nonsense can be handled for you by AI agents or even physical robots.

There will be tools. Disagree? Here’s a point. Insofar as I knew about harvesting cranberries, I’ve seen cranberry forks. That’s how they used to do it.

That being said, if you watch the video above, there’s not a cranberry fork to be seen. The cranberry fork I saw was a piece of a magazine rack that a relative of mine who enjoys woodworking had integrated into the piece.

What was once a needful piece of farm equipment is now a quaint piece to be repurposed. Check out a lot of antique shops and auction houses to find examples of things that used to be necessary to daily work but have been converted to objets d’art because they’ve been replaced with more efficient tools.

The future is now and getting better every day.

Art Is Art, Isn’t It?

Well, Art is Art, isn’t it? Still, on the other hand, water is water. And east is east and west is west and if you take cranberries and stew them like applesauce they taste much more like prunes than rhubarb does. Now you tell me what you know. ~Groucho Marx

Harkening back to Wednesday’s day of absurdity, I couldn’t help but throw this quote from Groucho in. Why? Because it’s hard to find decent quotes about a cranberry and this one gave me a giggle.

So, having reallocated my October Mondays to my recent trip to visit my folks in Florida, I am now back on track with my standard No Mondays in 4Q Policy. I find that having long weekends to focus on my Holiday Season Serial Romances is incredibly helpful to getting them done.

I am actually in good stead today. I’m fully rested and I’ve got the dishes all washed. Mental clutter has been swept from my brain like cobwebs from the corners.

The only thing distracting me at the moment is I’d really like to have some lunch before I get down to my next writing sprint.

I find that the best way to get into flow state and stay there is to have as few distractions as possible.

Life has not been particularly accommodating on that front. Work has been crazy busy. Random nonsense around home such as the sudden need for a new roof and various car repairs have been distracting as heck.

Be that as it may, 4Q is my happy place. I have enshrined it as a sacrosanct period of focused writing the last few years and that has served me well.

After pushing hard all year, three months of long weekends solely devoted to writing and guaranteed R&R is something I need to maintain sanity and balance.

As for The Lights of Pine Hollow, I’m a bit perplexed. I thought it was going one way, but it couldn’t have from the get-go. I’m going to have to give some serious thought to that.

That’s a tad irritating. I don’t usually have to do rewrites on my Holiday Season Serial Romances, so that’s a bit disconcerting. Nevertheless, I’m finally in 4Q mode and ready to set everything back on track. Jeez…

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Whether you SHLOOP it from a can or make it yourself from fresh berries, it’s quickly getting to that magic day when most of us will be digging into some glorious cranberry sauce. Blessings to you and your family and guests on Thanksgiving 🦃 Day and every day.