[Sca-cooks] cranberries
Mark Hendershott
crimlaw at jeffnet.org
Fri Oct 9 13:25:09 PDT 2009
Is Vaccinium oxycoccus also known as lingonberry?
Simon Sinneghe
Briaroak, Summits, An Tir
At 01:06 PM 10/9/2009, you wrote:
>Cranberries, Vaccinium marcocarpum, are North American. Vaccinium
>oxycoccus is a similar smaller reddish fruit found in the Arctic and
>cooler northern regions including Europe and are commonly called
>small cranberries or European cranberries. Bilberries (blueberries)
>are also members of genus Vaccinium and are related. Barberries are
>members of genus Berberis and to my knowledge are not related.
>
>I'm not near my OED, but you might want to check out the derivation
>and temporal usage of cranberry which comes from the German.
>
>According to some limited soure material, New World cranberries were
>known in period, but may or may not have been eaten in Europe at
>that time. Commercial production didn't begin until the late 19th Century.
>
>If V. oxycoccus were eaten in period (which is likely), it use was
>probably limited to extreme Northern Europe. I haven't located much
>on it's native range, but I suspect it may be one of the berries
>that grow in tundra bogs.
>
>Bear
>
>>where cranberries known in period Europe?
>>
>>Theadora
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