20 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY NOVEMBER 27-DECEMBER 3, 2025 www.montereycountynow.com Cranberries sauce up Thanksgiving, but they are also a versatile ingredient the rest of the year. By Dave Faries Finish the sentence “As American as…” What came to mind? Baseball? The sport is said to have evolved from an English children’s game. Besides, this is a food story. Apple pie is not a bad guess, although Richard II might have words with you. The treat dates back at least to his reign in England, which was before Europeans discovered the New World. Hot dogs or hamburgers? You know better. Fortunately, there is a response that is both accurate and suits the season: “Turkey and cranberries are both North American,” observes David Hardie, chef at Elroy’s Fine Foods in Monterey. Hardie is a fan of cranberries. For the specialty grocery’s take home “Heatable Eatable” Thanksgiving menu, he created a raw cranberry relish with orange—zest and all. But he argues that the tart berries can be more than just a holiday dressing. “I would say they are more versatile than people think,” the chef observes. “I’ve done so many things with them.” Naomi Coquillon of the Library of Congress suggests that the cranberry is part of the American story. It was an important plant for the Indigenous people, both as food, medicine and for making dyes. English settlers were quick to adapt to the cranberry, as did immigrants from other areas. It became part of holiday tradition, but was also harvested by migrant laborers (including child labor) packed into unsanitary housing. As Americans became more health-conscious, the importance of cranberries grew even more. Despite its culinary versatility, using the cranberry as a dressing was a common practice early on. John Josselyn traveled the New World and wrote of what he found in the 1672 travelogue Berry Fine DANIEL DREIFUSS
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