RTÉ Food

The cranberry is a small sour fruit. It is so sour that most people can't stand to eat fresh cranberries alone. Cranberries contain edible seeds and plenty of air. Cranberry juice has been shown to reduce bladder infections in a nursing home environment. Cranberries are popular as juice, dried fruit, and a jam or jelly called cranberry sauce — all with added sugar of course. One single growers' cooperative, Ocean Spray, controls 70% of the cranberry crop.

The cranberry bushes are generally found in the northern hemisphere regions in acid bogs. Cranberry bushes grow in sandy bogs and marshes and they are found from summer to winter. The bushes are small they reach about ten centimeters and they are surrounded by evergreen tiny leaves. The flowers which produce the fruit are pink with reflexes petals while the fruit is a deep red berry and it is generally bigger than the leaves. There are four types of cranberries American cranberries (also called large cranberries), northern cranberry, small cranberry and southern mountain cranberry. Cranberries are used for preparing sauces, jams, compotes, muffins, cakes and juices. The juices are generally mixed with other fruits in order to reduce its usual strict bitterness. The cranberry juice consumed regulate reduces the urinary tract infections and has a chemical in its composition that obstructs pathogens which provoke tooth decay. The fruits are considered to have antibiotic properties which can prevent infectious bacteria from attaching to the cells between the bladder and the urinary tract.