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Cranberries are a wild healthy berry that grows in northern latitudes. It contains a huge amount of nutrients and nutrients that help strengthen the immune system and fight various infections. How and where cranberries grow should be known to everyone who goes for this storehouse of vitamins.
General information and varieties
All cranberries belong to the Heather family and are related to blueberries, blueberries and lingonberries. In total, there are 4 varieties of cranberries that grow in the wild:
- Common cranberry. The shrub belongs to the evergreen and grows in the northern and temperate latitudes of the Eurasian continent. Creeping plant, shoots up to 80 cm long. The leaves are ovate, up to 100 mm long. Blooms in May-June. Ripens in September. The diameter of the berries is 16 mm.
- Small-fruited. The shoots of this shrub spread 30 cm. The plant is listed in the Red Book of many regions. Fruits up to 8 mm in diameter.
- Large-fruited. It is distributed mainly in Canada and the USA. The fruits of this berry reach 25 mm in diameter. On its basis, large varieties of cultivated cranberries are bred.
Now the berry is harvested not only by hand, but also by a special harvester. This allows you to harvest a nutritious and healthy berry on an industrial scale.
There is also a hybrid bred in the USA for cultural breeding. For a long time, mankind could not tame wild berries, since cranberries are very capricious to environmental conditions in their places of growth and require increased soil fertility. The domestic cranberry variety appeared only at the end of the XNUMXth century. Compared to the wild, it grows easier under human supervision and has less requirements for soil and moisture.
At the same time, the wild berry tries to grow in places located far from human habitats. Therefore, berry lovers can walk more than one kilometer before they stumble upon thickets of a healthy product.
Properly harvested and harvested, cranberries serve as an antipyretic, anti-inflammatory, and also a means of strengthening the immune system. It can be used to treat colds, including in pregnant women and in children. The berry also has limitations, in particular, it cannot be eaten in large quantities by people with stomach ulcers and other problems of the mucosa of the gastrointestinal tract.
How cranberries grow
Cranberry is a marsh berry and grows in peat and sphagnum bogs. In Our Country, the berry grows exclusively in the Northern Hemisphere, as well as in damp coniferous forests and wet lowlands. And also attract berries and peat deposits. In our country, it is impossible to find cranberries only in the southern regions, with a minimum number of winter months and dry soil. In Our Country, it is found in Kamchatka, Karelia, Sakhalin and Siberia. Everywhere in those regions that belong to the tundra and forest-tundra, as well as in the taiga moist, coniferous forests, where swamps and wet lowlands are often found.
It is noteworthy that in different territories the berry has its own names. For example, in the Pskov region of Our Country, it is called the stonefly, and the Ukrainians – the crane. In Belarus, this berry is called a crane.
Comparison of cranberries with a crane is not accidental – the berry is located on a long stem, which resembles a thin and long neck of a crane.
It is interesting that cranberries most often grow in those places where a person has not spoiled the environment and has not developed vigorous economic activity. This is a kind of indicator that the nature around is clean, and much has been preserved in its original form. The main conditions for the growth of this berry is a sufficient amount of moisture and fertile soil.
What does a cranberry look like
Cranberries are small evergreen shrubs. Shrub shoots are thin and spread widely around. At the same time, they can take root with special adventitious roots of a very small size.
The leaves of the shrub are small, with short cuttings and ovoid in shape. From above, the leaves are slightly pointed, and their edges are intact, slightly bent down.
On the upper side, the leaves have a dark green color and a shiny surface. The underside is greyish.
The flowers are drooping, small in size, located on long pedicels. The flowers are white, often tinged with pink. Cranberries bloom in late spring and early summer. Only 3 months after the start of flowering, you can harvest. The uniqueness of this berry is that it can be harvested both unripe and already overwintered in the spring, after the snow melts. True, in spring there are already much fewer vitamins and nutrients in cranberries.
The fruits are basically spherical, sometimes small ovoid berries. When the fruits are formed, they are white in color and then turn red. The color is bright, with gloss, and the dimensions reach 13 mm in diameter.
In order to increase the yield, cranberries are grown on special plantations on an industrial scale. There, the harvest is 20–30 times greater.
When cranberries are harvested
The berry has several picking dates. It all depends on the preferences and taste of consumers:
- Summer. The berry at this point is not yet fully ripe. The sides of the berries are reddish or pink. Such fruits can ripen on the windowsill, but they have an order of magnitude fewer nutrients and have a bitter taste. Such berries are usually harvested for long-term transportation.
- Autumn. Cranberries at this moment have a brown color and have the highest degree of maturity. The high content of pectin in these berries allows them to be preserved with high quality and stored for a long time in the form of blanks for the winter. Autumn cranberries are also important for winemakers, because special microorganisms form on their skins, which contribute to fermentation processes.
- Spring. The overwintered berry accumulates a large amount of sugar, and therefore the taste of spring cranberries is not so sour. But there is practically no vitamin C in this berry. However, it is poorly transported and not stored.
When cranberries ripen in Our Country
The maturation of useful raw materials occurs depending on the region. The first harvest ripens already in early September, and in the Central regions of Our Country – by mid-September. If at this time to collect cranberries and sort out, then whole berries can easily be poured with cold water and left in a cool place for storage until next year.
The second time for collecting wild raw materials is November, with the onset of frost. Until the first snow. In some regions, cranberries are valued after frost, as they become sweeter.
The third collection time is early spring, immediately after the snow melts. But during this period, it should be collected very carefully, since it is easily wrinkled and poorly transported. Yes, and you need to know the places where cranberries can be found, and where they have not yet been harvested.
How cranberries grow in a swamp
Everyone knows that the wild northern berry grows in the swamp. Therefore, you need to collect cranberries with great care. Cranberry thickets spread like a carpet over the swamp, only slightly rising above the ground.
It is optimal to use a special comb, wooden or metal, when collecting. This makes the berry easier to find, as it hides under the leaves and is not always visible to the naked eye.
Conclusion
How and where cranberries grow, all lovers of “silent hunting” know. These are the northern taiga forests, where swamps and high soil moisture are common. In these places there is always a clearing, where a bush with bright red beads spreads like a carpet. It is important that you need to carefully prepare and be careful when picking berries, because cranberries love swampy places with a lot of bogs where you can get stuck. But the collection time is very extensive: from the beginning of September until the full imposition of snow cover. In some regions, the crop is also happily harvested in the spring. But experts with experience say that the most delicious and healthy berry is after the first frost.
