By Sister Maggie Beaudette, CSJ, Sisters of St. Joseph in Canada

Every season, spring, summer, autumn, and winter holds a particular beauty for me. The later weeks of summer are some of my favourite because it is cranberry picking season!

When I visit “down south” and talk about picking cranberries, many people think that I am wearing hip waders and standing in ponds of water…perhaps, if I lived in B.C. However, did you know that there are high bush and low bush cranberries? In Hay River, NT where I live, I am surrounded with cranberries, both high bush and low bush.

Beginning in August, I can be found along the trails or in the wooded area on my property picking high bush cranberries.

The leaves resemble a narrow maple leaf, and the berries grow in clusters on a stem. Red in colour, the berries are small, juicy, and quite tart and have a small, flat stone. The bushes around the vicinity grow waist high. As the summer season progresses and cooler days come, the foliage turns a beautiful pinkish red and you can smell the scent of the berries in the air. Cranberries are an excellent source of Vitamin C.

I make a wonderful barbeque type sauce with the berries. Although labour intensive, the process, and the aroma of the seven spices makes the task worthwhile.

Low bush cranberries grow on the ground, so I am on my hands and knees picking these beautiful berries.

I can spend hours picking, always aware of bears. To that end, I wear bells and seldom pick alone. Low bush cranberries are picked usually in September until the snow arrives. They are very tasty after the first frost. The leaves are leathery and shiny, and the berries are found at the end of the stem.

Unlike high bush, these berries are sweet in taste and do not have a stone. The plants grow on muskeg, moss, around the trunks of trees and in tall grass. Some seasons the forest floor is carpeted with berries. The berries range in colour from red to a deep purple depending on the place they are growing. Sometimes they are found on white lichen or muskeg and their shiny gloss has the appearance of beautiful Christmas decorations within the whiteness of the lichen.

In other places, I dig into the wet moss with my fingers to find the berries which grow to a good size and remind me of chocolate covered almonds in shape! These berries I simply clean and freeze in three cup portions. They are used in muffins, loaves, jam, and sauce.

The season of cranberry picking is a time for moments of quiet reflection, time spent with friends, an opportunity to be aware and grateful for the gifts of the land. I try not to pick all the berries in an area, leaving some for the bears and birds and, also time to reproduce.

Cranberries are a beautiful gift from the Creator!

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Sr. Maggie Beaudette, CSJ, has lived and served in the north for some 32 years, including the past 22 years in Hay River, NT, on the south shore of the Great Slave Lake in the Catholic Diocese of Mackenzie-Fort Smith. She is a member of the Congregation of the Sisters of Saint Joseph in Canada.