SC - Protectorate Feast

[Jenne Heise]

> << Correct me if I am wrong but aren't Blueberries new world? >>
> That and the topic of cranberries is a perpetual argument on this list. My 
> opinion is yes they are and yes cranberries are. I would never think of 
> serving either at a feast.

Hm. that sparks my curiousity, so I went looking for information in the EB
and in the OED (ok, so we just got a subscription, the newness hasn't worn
off, what can I say?!)

Oxford English dictionary says: 

Cranberry: 

"The fruit of a dwarf shrub, Vaccinium Oxycoccos, a native of Britain,
Northern Europe, Siberia, and N. America, growing in turfy bogs: a small,
roundish, dark red, very acid berry. Also the similar but larger fruit of
V. macrocarpon, a native of N. America (large or American cranberry). Both
are used for tarts, preserves, etc. The name is also given to the shrubs
themselves.  The name appears to have been adopted by the North American
colonists from some LG. source, and brought to England with the American
cranberries (V. macrocarpon), imported already in 1686,"

"blue-berry, the name of various species of Vaccinium, especially
the American V. corymbosum;"

The Encyclopedia Brittanica lists only N.American species of Vaccinum as
'blueberry' but of the cranberry it says: "fruit of any of several small
creeping or trailing plants of the genus Vaccinium (family Ericaceae),
related to the blueberries. The small-fruited, or northern, cranberry (V.  
oxycoccus) is found in marshy land in northern North America and Asia and
in northern and central Europe."

On the other hand, it's expansive on the bilberry, or whortleberry:
"also called WHORTLEBERRY (Vaccinium myrtillus), low-growing
deciduous shrub belonging to the family Ericaceae. It is found in
woods and on heaths, chiefly in hilly districts of Great Britain,
northern Europe, and Asia."

The OED says of the bilberry:
" 1. The fruit of a dwarf hardy shrub (Vaccinium Myrtillus),
abundant on heaths, on stony moors, and in mountain woods, in
Great Britain and Northern Europe; the berry is of a deep blue
black, and about a quarter of an inch in diameter. So called chiefly
in the Midlands; other names are WHORTLEBERRY and
BLAEBERRY. The name is applied also to the plant, and used
attrib.
 
  1577 DEE Relat. Spir. I. (1659) 171 The cloth, Hair-colourd, Bilbery
juyce.
1594 BARNFIELD Aff. Sheph. II. xii, Straw~berries or Bil-berries, in their
prime. 1598 SHAKES. Merry W. V. v. 49 There pinch the Maids as blew as
Bill~berry. "

So if you want to use blue berries, I guess you would get some Vaccinium
Myrtillus, and if you want cranberries, you should seek out some of them
there Vaccinium Oxycoccos.

Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, mka Jennifer Heise	      jenne at tulgey.browser.net
disclaimer: i speak for no-one and no-one speaks for me.

"They do not preach that their God will rouse them a little before the 
	nuts work loose. 
They do not preach that His Pity allows them to drop their job when 
	they damn-well choose. " -Kipling, "The Sons of Martha"