Sunday, January 27, 2008

Fresh Cranberries in Central Market

Fresh cranberries (Клюква, as handwritten on the sign) straight from the bogs of Archangelsk (Архангельск) in far north Russia. Welcome to Rostov, little berries. Compared to frigid Archangelsk, Rostov is almost tropical.

These vitamin-packed gems will set you back 70 to 140 rubles a jar (24.5 rubles to the dollar at the moment), depending on the quality. I settled for the loose ones, two kilo at 200 rubles each.

Oh, aren't they beautiful? I'm stocking up on cranberries while they're in season. Someday soon I'll tell you about my adventures with drying cranberries and other means of preserving them.

How about you? Do you have a favorite way to enjoy this so good-for-you fruit? Have you ever tried drying fruit yourself?

3 comments:

Kyle and Svet Keeton said...

Oh, cranberry is very good for you. Our doctors always tell you to have sour drink (cranberry, lemon and so on) when you have flu.

We bought our cranberry in Karelia in November they were selling it by buckets on the road. We don't dry berries we put them in freezer to keep all vitamins.

Best wishes and take care,
Svet and Kyle

Anonymous said...

We keep what berries we can get in the freezer. Gary makes a mean Cranberrry, Orange Walnut muffin and a great cranberry sauce with lots of walnuts and only natural sweetners, you know!

Eileen said...

Hello Kyle and Svet, THANK YOU for stopping by. Interesting about the sour drinks - high in acid, right? - for treating the flu. Does it seem to help, more than, say, non acidic drinks? Of course Any drinks would be helpful, right? (non alcoholic of course !!!) Yes, Svet, sooo good for you all the vitamins in cranberries. I agree with you - I'm settling on freezing too as a favorite means of preserving cranberries. But I learned a thing or two while drying them!

Now Svet, if I may:
Attention you linguist-wanna-be's out there: Svet is a native speaker of Russian and her English skills are sooo good. Did you notice how she uses *cranberry* singular in English when she talks about cranberries, plural. Anybody want to take a guess as to why? (Charity, I bet YOU'LL KNOW!) Thank you Svet for all the color you contribute to this blog! I hope to meet you someday in person!

Hey Dear Anonymous Double-Cousin MM, You freeze your cranberries too, right? You know, I could bring some berries over to you in my suitcase. They're probably cheaper over here. On the other hand...maybe not. Yum, those muffins sound de-lish! (I'm guessing OJ and orange zest?) Hope I get a sample next time I see you! Big Hug, EE