Botanzing

Lingnonberries

berries

Two species of true cranberries can be found in the western Hudson Bay area. "Lingnonberry," Vaccinium Vitis-idaea, is also known, according to Johnson, by a variety of other names including "Dry Ground Cranberry," "Mossberry," "Mountain," "Rock" or "Lowbush Cranberry," "Cowberry," "Red Whortleberry," " Partridge Berry" and "Pomme de Terre." This plant is incredibly common and easy to find by the most casual observer. I noticed myself how this plentiful, low-growing species often served as a ground cover, their tiny, clear-green, oval leaves intermingling with the larger, softer and more deeply veined ones of bearberries. (Arctystaphylos alpina and A. Rubra).

The flowers of Dry Ground Cranberry are very similar, upon casual inspection, to those of a related species, Andromeda polifolia or "Bog Rosemary." Both are members of the Heath family (Ericaceae). Both are very tiny, almost identical in size, bell-shaped and pale pink. cranberry flower

Flowers of the dry ground cranberry have four regular parts; Bog Rosemary flowers have five parts. Were it not for the foliage on each plant, someone seriously interested in proper plant identification would probably have to lie stomach-down to count the petals in order to tell them apart. Fortunately, the foliage of Bog Rosemary resembles that of true rosemary, with needle-shaped dark green leaves, while the delicate-looking tiny foliage of the cranberry is bright green, leathery and rounded. Once you know both, you cannot mistake one for the other.

Eva Beckett,writing in North with the Birds, May 23,1948 quoted by Chartier and Brandson states that "Some day, perhaps, more will be made of our northern cranberries which, although small in size are delectable in flavor. Two hundred years ago when packet ships from England annually sailed into Hudson Bay, part of their cargo on the return voyage consisted of kegs of cranberries packed in moist sugar. These were highly esteemed across the sea. Today, the northern cranberries are just as abundant as ever and if picked, readily find a market."

Pioneer chronicler Samuel Hearne was certainly aware of this custom and writing in 1795 added that when processed in the manner described above, "they will keep for years and are annually sent to England in considerable quantity as presents, where they are much esteemed."

I can understand why the folks back home desired the primitive wild cranberry jam of which old Sam Hearne and Eva Beckett spoke so glowingly. I bought a jar made out of these same wild cranberries from the gift shop at the Churchill Northern Studies Centre. I wish I had bought more of them. The burgundy-red processed mash inside made supermarket-style cranberries taste like cardboard by comparison. Imagine cranberries, but with a flavor both more intense and more complex than our familiar Thanksgiving fruit. Wine drinkers can understand by comparing, say, a bottle of top-quality and well-aged Pinot Noir or Cabernet Sauvignon produced by a great winery in Sonoma or France to red table wine sold in jugs for $6 a gallon. Happily, I found lignonberry jam sold in "The Swede Shop" at the Burbank Ikea, so the stuff is available locally, imported from another far-northern country.

References:

"Encounters on Hudson Bay, Churchill Region" a book published locally in Churchill compiled by Lorraine E. Brandson Eskimo Museum and Bonnie Chartier, Churchill, Churchill Wilderness Encounter, Churchill, MAN CAN 1983 with reprints from:

(a) Charlotte Selina Bompas, 1929 ed. A heroine of the North: Memoirs of Charlotte Seline Bompas (1830-1917) Wife of the first Bishop of Selkirk (Yukon) with extracts from her journal and letters compiled by SA Archer.

(b) Andrew Graham Andrew Graham¹s Observations on Hudson¹s Bay 1767-91, ed. Glyndwr Williams, Hudson¹s Bay Record Society, London, vol xxxii, published 1969

(c) Samuel Hearne, A Journey from Prince of Wale¹s Fort in Hudson¹s Bay to the Northern Ocean, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772. ed. Richard Glover, Macmillian and Co. Ltd. Toronto, pub. 1958.

(d) Eva Beckett,writing in North with the Birds, May 23,1948:7

"Wildflowers of Churchill and the Hudson Bay Region," Karen L. Johnson. (published by Manitoba Museum of Man and Nature, in 1987)

Harvesting the Northern Wild, Marilyn Walker, The Northern Publishers, Box 1350 Yellowknife, NWT X1A 2N9, 1984;

American Indian Ethnobotany Database (published over the World Wide Web) material provided by Dan Moerman, Prof of Anthropology and Wm E. Stirton, Prof. of Anthro. U Michigan, Dearborn:

The Flora of Churchill, Manitoba 7th edition, 1991 by Peter A. Scott, Dept. Zoology, U Toronto 25 harbord Street, Toronto, Ontario CA M5S 1A1

Go to Pembina, or HighBush Cranberries.

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