In Russia about the benefits of cranberries also knew long ago.
About this berry and its properties is mentioned in Domostroy, dating back to the XVI century.
Cranberry juice was used as a "special medicine" for coughs and as the first remedy for scurvy.
Cranberry juice was used to treat soaking wounds and long non-healing ulcers.
The cranberry plant was valued for its tonic, antipyretic, and thirst-quenching actions.
Cranberry morsels were drunk with fever, it was also given when recovering from colds and infectious diseases.
The cranberry plant was brought to Europe by the Vikings.
This event dates back to the I-II centuries according to the new chronology.
The berry first appeared in England and then in its neighboring countries.
Around the same time, cranberries began to be called northern lemon, as they contain a lot of ascorbic acid and have always been famous as an anti-scurvy remedy.
The bitterness of the berry is given by cinnamic acid, especially useful in fever.
Nowadays, the cranberry plant is known all over the world.
For example, in America, they managed to breed a variety with fruits of gigantic size - about the size of a large pea.
In general, over the ocean, cranberries have been cultivated for a long time, since 1811.
Thus, the United States became the second homeland of the berry, which gained a strong position in the cooking of the population of this country.
Traditionally, the largest amount of cranberries is consumed on Thanksgiving Day, when turkey with gravy made from this berry is served.
Cranberries are a unique product in terms of nutritional value.
For the winter it is prepared in the form of jam, jam, cranberries are used to make sours, morsels, squeeze juice, make stuffing for pies.
Cranberries are eaten fresh, pre-sprinkled with powdered sugar, with it sour cabbage, etc.
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In general, the popularity of this berry is not based on nothing: cranberries are a real treasure trove of unique substances that are not found in any other berry.
Description
.Cranberries are evergreen stalked shrubs with thin twiggy shoots.
Leaves are leathery, small, oblong or ovate, pointed to the end, dark green above, pale green, whitish below.
Flowers are located at the ends of shoots on long pedicels.
The berries are bright red, pear-shaped or globular, 8 to 12 mm in diameter.
The plant blooms in June and by September the cranberry berries are ripe.
If the berries remain on the bush, they are well preserved under the snow until spring.
Cranberries are widespread in almost all regions of the middle and northern strip of the European part of Russia.
Its thickets occupy vast areas in the Urals, Siberia and the Far East.
Prefers waterlogged forests and sedge-sphagnum bogs.
In abundant cranberry years in these areas you can pick up to a ton of cranberries from 1 hectare.
The yield is somewhat less in mossy bogs: there is too much moisture and not enough nutrients for the plant.
There are two types of cranberries in the Urals: small-fruited and large-fruited.
The former can also grow in forest tundra and tundra zone, as it is about 1.5 times smaller than the large-fruited one and has time to mature even in a short taiga summer.
There are about 22 varieties of cranberries growing in Karelian bogs.
Here you can find large-fruited species with a berry diameter of about 2 cm and weighing up to 3 g.
Such cranberries are characterized by a high content of vitamin C.
In addition to wild cranberries, there are also cultivated cranberries.
Scientists have developed several varieties with especially large fruits that are characterized by a high content of sugars and organic acids.
The cranberries of these varieties ripen an average of a week earlier than wild species.
In addition, cultivated cranberries can be propagated by cuttings: the plant yields from the third year of life, and in the fourth year the total mass of berries harvested from the plantation can exceed the volume of harvest of wild species more than 2 times.
