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Today was the 29th Annual Golden Spurtle® World Porridge Making Championship® at the Village Hall, Carrbridge, Scotland (and the day after tomorrow is World Porridge Day) so of course I had to begin the day with a bowl of my favorite porridge -- with cranberries of course.
Today was also the 29th Annual Cranberry Harvest Festival in Grayland Washington -- about a half-hour drive from home. I doubt that the organizers of either event had any awareness of the other event. But I do.
October 8 - 9 in Grayland: 29TH ANNUAL CRANBERRY HARVEST FESTIVAL - Bog tours, cranberry cook off, a pancake breakfast and firefly parade. -- https://westportgrayland-chamber.org/calendar.php
Cranberry Festival Schedule of Events (webp)
Each year about this time I look forward to acquiring a good supply of fresh cranberries. I certainly don't limit myself to a tiny bit of cranberry sauce or relish as a garnish for the plate at an annual holiday feast, which seems to be the extent of their tolerance for cranberries for many of the people I know. I regularly eat cranberries in my porridge, in my oatcakes (which have become my staple bread in recent years), in cookies, cakes, and pies, and occasionally include them as an accent in vegetable or meat dishes. Sadly fresh cranberries are usually only available here from mid-October to about mid-December. Each year I buy a good supply and freeze some for later, but it is a disappointment when I run out of them in the summer -- then I have to resort to dried cranberries.
I have always been able to get fresh cranberries (in season) at our local green-grocer for $0.99 per pound, but they closed permanently earlier this year, largely as a result of the recent pandemic. What to do? The local supermarket has frozen cranberries available year-round for $4.49 per pound, but at that price they become an occasional treat rather than a regular pantry item.
During the Cranberry Harvest Festival several of the growers -- who normally sell their whole crop to the cranberry co-operative -- set up road-side stands and sell directly to the public. We drove up to their processing shed and while the farmer was inside the shed dumping huge bags of cranberries into a machine that separates the berries from the stems and leaves that the harvester includes incidentally, his three children were just outside selling one-pound and five-pound bags of freshly harvested cranberries for $1.00 per pound. We gladly paid them and drove away with two five-pound bags, which we are now preparing to stash away in our small freezer.
Oh, the arts and crafts booths, food stalls, and music at the community center were fun too, but the highlight of the festival for me was the cranberries from the farmer down the road.
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📅 c: 2022-10-08 20:53 ✏️ e:
🏷 tags: #cranberries #oats #porridge
