CRANBERRY ANATOMY - PRINTABLE & RECIPE

The Cranberry is a tiny, colorful, and flavorful fruit to discover. Check out this amazing berry by discovering the Cranberry Anatomy with this FREE Printable and delicious recipe.

Christmas and Thanksgiving tables often have the seasonal cranberry sauce (be sure to scroll for my favorite recipe), or cranberry bread and muffins. Dried cranberries are a sweet treat in granola, on yogurt, and as a vitamin-packed snack.

But this little fruit is also great fun to observe.

As we ventured into our annual Thanksgiving studies, we decided to take a closer look here and really discover the cranberry on a new level.

Check out these other Family Thanksgiving Traditions.

CRANBERRY FACTS

First, we had to find some Cranberry Facts! The below are from That’s It. Fruit.

Cranberries are one of the few fruits native to North America.
The 5 states known for growing cranberries are Massachusetts, Wisconsin, New Jersey, Oregon, and Washington.
Cranberries have small pockets where air seeps into that allows them to float.
Cranberries do not grow in water.
Cranberries are approximately 90% water.
Cranberries are typically in season from October until December.
Cranberries can be used as fabric dyes.
Cranberries have many health benefits such as preventing urinary tract infections, aiding in reducing the risk of cardiovascular diseases, and helping slow down tumor progression.
Only about 5% of cranberries are sold fresh while the rest are turned into cranberry juice, sauce, etc.
One cup to cranberries is about 50 calories.

You can find even more at the Ocean Spray Cranberry website too.

Since we live in Massachusetts we do have the advantage of visiting local cranberry bogs. We do this almost every Christmas to venture out on some new trails that come with a little bit of nature study & observation on the way.

If you are local to any, I cannot encourage this enough as it is a very cool site to see all the berries floating on the water in the bogs.

ANATOMY OF A CRANBERRY

Discovering the cranberry anatomy is so simple and fun. All you need is a bag of cranberries. Give one or two to each of your kids and begin checking this little fruit out.

We shook them to hear the seeds inside. Felt the outer smooth skin. Cut them open to see the shapes inside. Tasted them raw. Then drew a little diagram.

Here is a simple printable for your kids to follow.:

Related: The Blessing of Giving

Ask your kids what they see and have them make a sketch of it. Some responses to what the halved cranberry looked like were:

snowflake
flower
cross
the letter X

My kids had a great time with this activity.

CRANBERRY SAUCE RECIPE

My favorite kind of cranberry sauce is an orange-cranberry with cinnamon that I make with my girls each Thanksgiving.

Here is a simple recipe for you to try once you have discovered the cranberry by observation.

12 oz. bag Fresh Cranberries
1 fresh orange
1/2 Cup sugar
1/2 Cup orange juice (or apple cider)
1 tsp cinnamon or 2 cinnamon sticks

Heat the water, juice, and sugar in a saucepan. Heat until dissolved. Add your cranberries and cinnamon and reduce heat to a simmer. Simmer for 10-15 minutes covered and enjoy the incredible aroma in your kitchen!

You will know it is done when the berries mash easily with your wooden spoon.

From there you can mash it to your preferred consistency. I like to leave it a bit chunky but you can use an immersion blender for a smoother sauce.

Serve it warm or chilled with a bit of orange zest on top Enjoy!

This recipe will also keep for up to 6 months in your refrigerator in a canning jar.

Another favorite and simple recipe is my Homemade Applesauce.

You can dig in and discover the cranberry anatomy even more by adding these amazing resources.