Part One of Two on sustainable cranberry sauce for your Thanksgiving dinner… While cranberry-sauce-in-a-can is always on our Thanksgiving table to appease my “traditionalist” husband and in-laws, I make one or two fresh variations as well. I’ve always been intrigued by the notion of cranberry bogs. While my home state Oregon actually boasts a few, I have never seen one in person. In other random cranberry facts, did you know that cranberries are one of the few native North American fruits? And that the cranberry capital of the US is Wisconsin, with Massachusetts in second place? Nutritionally, cranberries provide a boost of antioxidants, vitamin C and fiber.

If you’re like me, one of the first steps you probably took to “go green” was swapping out plastic bottles for a few reusable bottles. (We’re fans of the Sigg (especially for kids) and Klean Kanteen here at the Foodie Tots household.) Then you probably started noticing the news reports about what’s really in that bottled water and just how polluted your tap water really is. (Especially if you’re lucky enough to live in lead pipe-supplied D.C.) Yeah yeah, enough with the science lesson, how does this relate to Thanksgiving dinner? …

Cranberry bogs. I was brushing off my maple cranberry sauce recipe and started wondering just what chemicals might lurk in those mysterious bogs. Then I realized they probably add pesticides on top of whatever groundwater contaminants are already there. Sure enough, cranberries are treated with 22 different types of pesticides (and herbicides, fungicides, etc.), which are then discharged into lakes, rivers and wetlands. And cranberry bogs are exempt from the Clean Water Act (!).

So I pointed my trusty Google towards “organic cranberry bog” and discovered this great little video from Nantucket, Connecticut, where the Nantucket Conservation Fund is slowly converting traditional bogs to all-natural cranberry plots. (Remember that crops have to be grown organically for a number of years before they can obtain organic certification, so there is a significant lag time.)

As retold in the video, their organic cranberries garner three times the price of conventional, but they put about four times as much labor into maintaining the bogs. Organic bogs also produce a lower yield, which is further disincentive in a conventional food system that values quantity over all else. They are making progress, however. The University of Massachusetts-Amherst’s Cranberry Station is also conducting research and outreach to increase the use of integrated pest management (IPM, or less-pesticide) techniques in cranberry bogs.

So check your local grocery and spring for the organic berries if you can find them - Thanksgiving only comes once a year, after all, and now you can enjoy your meal knowing a little less pesticide is entering our water (and your kids - after all, cranberries soaking in toxins for months at a time can’t simply be rinsed clean). And you can wash it down with organic Triple Eight cranberry vodka, straight from Nantucket.

Up next, where to find organic cranberries and a recipe to enjoy them in.

“Behind the label” is a new series by FoodieTots.com that highlights the sustainability issues behind our food, and brings you the facts you won’t find in the glossy food mags who rely on ad revenue from big agribusiness.

Ingredients:

I grew up in the hills northwest of Portland, Oregon, just up the river from Sauvie Island. This 33 square mile island is a quiet retreat just 20 minutes from Portland and split between farmland and Sturgeon Lake’s bird sanctuary. My family still fishes and kayaks on the island, and the sandy north shore made for an easy “beach” trip when I was a kid. The tug boats, barges and cargo ships were added entertainment, making their way up the Columbia’s ship channel to the ocean.

My brother spent a few summers working the peach stand at Sauvie Island Farms, and the sweet, dusty smell of the orchard is still the essence of summer for me. This year, we took my son and niece peach picking on a beautiful August day that started with a drizzle, but turned sunny as we walked through the orchard.

The kids had a blast pulling each other in the wagons and the toddler was mesmerized by the massive peaches that somehow kept finding their way into his hands.

These incredible peaches were the Veteran variety, about the size of a softball and oh so sweet and juicy.

We were lucky to also catch the tail end of blueberry season, but as the kids seemed to be putting far fewer into the box than they were picking, we had to drag them out of the bushes and restrain them back in the wagon

Now, if you aren’t from the Northwest you may not appreciate the depth of the rivalry between Oregon and Washington (go Ducks!) … but if you do find yourself out that way and venture on to the Island, beware of the big red barn farmstand at the foot of the bridge. We sent my brother and sister-in-law over to get some peaches for Sunday dinner, and they stopped there since the usual place was closed. And brought home Washington peaches. Now, it is a nice farmstand and has some local produce, but it also has the same things you could find at Fred Meyer. I bought some lovely California avocados there last year. So if you’re looking for a more authentic experience, continue down the road following the “u-pick” signs to Sauvie Island Farms. (You can consult the farmer’s wife to see what’s in season.)

Oh, and what to make with fresh picked peaches and berries? Peach Blackberry Cobbler, of course!

While the FoodieTots is on our annual trip out west, in pursuit of farmstead cheese, tasty microbrews and fine pinot, I’m sharing a tale of our ‘07 visit to this charming goat dairy nestled in Oregon’s coast range. Hopefully we will be nibbling on their hazelnut torte as you read this!

On our way back from the Oregon coast, we visited Rivers Edge Chevre, a tiny goat dairy that was having their second anniversary wine and cheese festival. The farm is located in a beautiful valley in the coast range. They recently won several awards at the 2007 American Cheese Society Competition. The cheese was phenomenal - the winery (Madrone Mountain) had port-style wines that were a little sweet for my taste. But the cheeses… yum. They had goat cheese tortes with flavors like olive tapenade, sun-dried tomato pesto, basil pesto, and roasted hazelnut and frangelico which was the toddler’s favorite. (I had to cut him off for fear of him getting drunk off cheese ;-).) I really enjoyed the Sunset Bay, “an ash-coated wheel with a deep vein of paprika.” We took the hazelnut torte back to the grandparents’ and enjoyed it on toast every morning for breakfast.

And the little herd of friendly goats kept the toddler and his cousin well entertained.

originally published 09.10.07

Milk was the first step in our transition to organic foods, as I first learned about bovine growth hormones (rBGH) shortly after getting knocked up way back in 2006. As I had given up soda and all but the bare minimum of caffeine (1 small coffee), I was drinking a lot of milk and it didn’t take much to convince me to switch to organic milk. At first, the husband objected to paying twice as much, and challenged me to tell the difference in a blind taste test. When I correctly identified the organic by looks alone, and then by taste, he started to believe there may be a difference.

Soon after the toddler’s first birthday, and transition to cow’s milk, someone sent a message on our neighborhood listserv that a Maryland dairy would consider starting home delivery to our area if 72 families signed up. Apparently I was not the only one to jump at the chance, as they surpassed that number in two days! In October, the milkman made his first delivery to our front porch, and we couldn’t be more in love. Coming from free-ranging, grass-eating cows, bottled on site in real glass bottles, and appearing on our porch every Monday - could we be any luckier? The toddler is addicted to their milk, and checks the cooler nearly every day to see if the new bottles have been delivered. A few weeks ago, we headed up to the dairy for their Spring Cow Caper Festival. The toddler was mesmerized by the “mooo!” cows, talked to and fed the baby calves, and played for hours on the farm. They had barbecue, made from their beef and local pork, milk and cheese samples, and tasty ice cream.

While the farm is not certified organic, they allow their cows to eat grass or a corn/soy feed that is grown on the farm, are antibiotic and growth hormone free, and use no pesticides on their fields. (I inspected some bags of grain seed in the barn and was pleased to see not a Monsanto label in sight!) Watching the cows graze peacefully in the bright green hollows, it was hard to imagine that most dairy cows live very differently.

Perhaps the most exciting part of our experience is seeing my husband converted into a Creamery disciple - frequently pouring glasses of milk for friends and visitors. Almost without fail, their first reaction is “Wow, that tastes like milk.” I also get a kick out of seeing new customers gush over their rediscovery of what milk really tastes like. Here are some other new customers’ reactions:

• Aimee at DCMetroMoms
• Melissa McCart at Counter Intelligence
• Ed at TheSlowCook
• RedWattle, who aptly titled his post “Love in a Glass”
• Corinne at LittlestBird gave herself South Mountain milk as a Valentine’s present (see a theme here?)

Local? South Mountain delivers all over Northern Virginia, DC, Baltimore and Western Maryland. Check it out!

Updated 7.16.08 to add Baltimore, per Mike’s comment below. Thanks, Mike!