Highbush Cranberry & Guelder Rose

One of the most underrated and overlooked fruit available to foragers, highbush cranberry fruit is something I never seem to have enough of. An edible native fruit shrub that's easy to grow and propagate, they're a great addition to a yard, landscaping as a hedge, or part of a food forest. Today we'll go over the finer points of harvesting and processing, and, most importantly, how to avoid its cousin-the bitter, foul-tasting European Guelder Rose that's spread across North America.

Background

Viburnums are a group of fruit shrubs including nannyberries and highbush cranberries. Around the world they have a long history of use as food, with the most documentation I'm aware of coming from Russia, Eastern Europe, Ukraine, and Slavic countries.

In Russia viburnums are known as Kalina (калина) and are used in drinks and fruit preserves. It's important to know that the species used in Europe is the Guelder Rose (Viburnum opulus) which has a bitter taste and aroma I can best describe as what a wet dog smells like. Personally, I don't know how they find it palatable.

Inspired by a Ukrainian version I had, I worked with Ida Graves Distillery to produce a line of a few thousand bottles of Minnesota High Bush Cranberry Liquor. The flavor was good, but distribution to different states was a big hurdle.

In North America, Indigenous people's in the North also use the plant as food. Per usual, Daniel Moermon's Native American Food Plants has a decent list.

I was surprised to see that it included Guelder Rose in it's own section as any forager I know would toss them in the trash after tasting the native species. There also isn't any discussion of processing or removing the seeds, which make the juice noticeably bitter when cooked, no matter the species.

Growing Viburnums and Landscaping

Viburnums thrive in moist, well-drained woods, flood plains and the edges of woods, just like their cousin nannyberries and other fruit shrubs. These thrive on the North Shore in Minnesota and around the Great Lakes. I often find them near water. At my house I have them planted alongside my fence, and a friend of mine is planting a row of them as a native privacy hedge.

Viburnums are common where I live in Minnesota and often planted in landscaping as they grow quickly and produce attractive fruit and flowers in the spring. Unfortunately, the vast majority of highbush cranberries that are sold in the U.S. are the bitter Viburnum opulus, or Guelder Rose.

The confusion between the native and European species runs deep, and it's relatively well-known that nurseries regularly sell European plants labeled as V. trilobum, or V. opulus var americana. Even I planted one only to find out the stinky bitter truth later.

Reputedly, the DNR also has trouble separating the two species, and I know that Sam Thayer has been providing them with genetics of plants he grows for a few years.

Sam also sells his native highbush cranberry plants in the fall sometimes and I've been lucky enough to get a few. To date I know he's named at least three cultivars, one that he spotted in a someone's yard while driving by, which he named after the landowner, Sharon.

Last week I spoke to Sam about how to increase the number of plants I have. I knew like elderberries and raspberries, highbush cranberries can be propagated through cuttings with root hormone.

While cuttings could work, I'm more excited about Sam's suggestion to simply bend a pliable branch down to the dirt and put a rock on it. The plant spreads by seed as well as layering, meaning pliable branches that touch the ground will eventually develop roots, creating a clone of the plant.

Identification

These are fruit shrubs with distinct, palmate leaves made up of three lobes. In full sun and good conditions they'll be taller than an adult male, but are often kept short if they're in landscaping.

In spring clusters of five-petaled white flowers appear in the early summer. Usually early June in Minnesota.

The fruit is an ovoid or slightly elliptical berry that begins as clusters of bright green fruit, slowly changing to bright red over time, ripening in late summer and staying ripe on the plants into fall.

When the berries are ripe they'll be plump and juicy. Although they're eaten by birds, they often last late into the winter, especially the European species-even the birds don't like them.

Just like their cousin the nannyberry, each fruit contains a large, flat seed.

Guelder Rose vs Native Highbush Cranberry

The big question is how to separate the good-tasting, native species from the stinky, wet dog-esque European ones. There's a few ways to do this depending on if the plant has ripe fruit or not.

If the fruit isn't ripe, you can inspect the glands on the leaf. I can't put it more succinctly than Sam, so here's a quote from his new field guide:

"The keyable difference is that the glands on the petiole of V. opulus are broader than tall and concave, while those of V. trilobum are taller than broad and not concave."

Personally, I have difficulty picking out the differences by inspecting the leaf glands. Typically, I just taste the fruit and go by my instinct. If it tastes bitter, I avoid harvesting it. If the fruit is pleasantly tart and sour, it's good.

Another thing to keep in mind is the natural range of the plant. Highbush cranberries are a northern fruit, and while the range covers most of Wisconsin, it only covers about the northern ⅓ of Minnesota, so any fruit below that may be suspect, although I do have a nice patch near Hastings, south of the Twin Cities.

How to Make Highbush Cranberry Juice or Coulis

The cookable product you get from the fruit is highbush cranberry juice, a deliciously sour, bright red nectar that can be used anywhere you'd use cranberries. I'll describe two different ways to extract it. It's important to know that cooking the fruit while they contain seeds will produce a bitter juice and will ruin it, in my opinion.

First, harvest the fruit. I typically clip off the entire clusters of fruit as you would grapes. I will remove them from the racemes to make the coulis outlined below, or leave them on the racemes if I have, say, over 10 lbs to process.

Also, ideally you'll have plump, juicy berries. Dried or shriveled fruit will work too, but you'll need to add more water while processing.

Method 1: Mash and Strain

The way Sam showed me to process the fruit is exactly the same as how I process grapes. It's good for mass production if you have a lot of fruit since using the mash method you don't need to remove the individual fruit from the racemes / stems.

Put the fruit in a five gallon buck and mash them with a splash of water to get things moving. After the fruit is sufficiently mashed, pass it through a food mill or a China cap strainer with a pestle. A tomato strainer like a Squeez-O works too.

Once the fruit is pressed through the strainer, I find that I can get a decent second wash by adding a little extra water, mixing well and repeating the process. It's optional.

Method 2: Puree and Strain

This is the method I developed after noticing that a lot of the seeds still have flesh clinging to them. This method is better for small batches and people just starting to work with the fruit as It produces a "juice" that's so thick It's better described as a coulis (thick puree of fruit in French).

To make the thick puree, remove the fruit from the racemes and put them in a food processor, drizzling in a splash of water-just enough to get the blades moving. The genius part here is that a food processor is strong and will remove more of the flesh from the seeds and skins, but lacks the horsepower of something like a Vitamix which would pulverize the seeds.

After processing, the fruit puree or juice stores like a dream. Kept in the fridge it will keep for weeks without fermenting, although after a couple months it might begin to mold. Stored in the freezer it will last for years, and that's my first choice.

General Cooking and Recipes

You can do just about anything with the deliciously tart juice, and unlike many other fruit, it doesn't need sugar to shine. Anywhere the tart flavor of cranberry would be welcome, you can use highbush cranberries.

It would be remiss of me not to mention that you'll notice a bit of funk in the air as the juice simmers-a suggestion of their relation to Guelder Rose. Thankfully the funky aroma is much tamer and adds interest, rather than reminding me of what a wet dog would taste like.

Even so, back when I only knew of Guelder Ros (to the chagrin of my pastry chef) I served cranberry bush jelly with blue cheese and guests raved about the funk. The chef coat probably had something to do with that.

Here's a list of a few things I've made with the fruit over the years.

Simple Highbush Cranberry Sauce

The first thing you should make, and still my favorite recipe. Reduce ⅓ cup of maple syrup in a pot until it boils and threatens to creep up the sides. Add 2.5 or so cups of thick highbush cranberry juice/puree, lower the heat and simmer until thickened. Season it with a pinch of salt and slather it on everything from pork chops to ice cream.

If you want to make a mock cranberry sauce (it's better than the real thing) just add a pinch of spices as I outline in my recipe. I've made this the past few Easter's and my brother in law always begs the rest of the jar off me.

Highbush Cranberry Jelly

While it takes a little more skill than fruits with natural pectin, the juice makes a great jelly with an attractive color. The naturally tart flavor helps to balance the sugar and it's a special treat for breakfast spread on buttered toast.

If you like spicy food, you can add a chopped habanero pepper to a batch and it's wonderful on a cheese plate. See the recipe for highbush cranberry jelly here.

Kalina Liqour

Probably the easiest thing to make, you can craft a simple liqueur from the fruit by filling a quart jar with ripe berries and covering them with brandy or vodka, vodka being more traditional. I have a recipe for it here. Interestingly it's not bitter as the seeds aren't heated.

Tkemali Sauce

A sour, spicy sauce flecked with herbs inspired by the sour plum sauce of Georgia and the Caucuses. It's the best rendition of Tkemali sauce I've made to date.

Sweet and Sour Sauce

The fruit naturally makes a delicious sweet and sour sauce for serving with fried egg rolls, or just about anything you like. To make it, mix ½ cup strong highbush cranberry juice with ¼ cup honey, ¼ cup rice wine vinegar, ¼ teaspoon fish sauce, and a pinch of cayenne with 1 tablespoon cornstarch diluted in 2 tablespoons water. Simmer gently until thickened and store in the fridge.

Related Posts

• Wild Plums
• Nannyberries
• Mulberries