Common Cranberry

Lingonberry

Lingonberry comes from the heather family and is found throughout Europe, spreading across the Caucasus and distant parts of Asia to Japan, and further through North America to Greenland. It is a perennial, cushion-forming dwarf shrub growing up to 40 cm tall. Lingonberry has evergreen leaves with a leathery, ovate margin. Their color is glossy dark green on top, pale green matte underneath without protruding veins. The flowers are white to light pink, bell-shaped, in drooping clusters. The fruits are berries that develop from August, initially white, later bright red. They are spherical in appearance, glossy, and taste somewhat mealy.

The most suitable habitat for lingonberry is heathland or peatland; they also occur in coniferous and pine forests, growing from lowlands to high mountain areas. They thrive mainly in semi-shaded locations with poor and acidic soil. The slightly bitter, tart-sour lingonberries are forest fruits exceptionally rich in vitamins. From lingonberry we use its leaves and fruits. If we wanted to enjoy them raw, for example in a fruit salad, they should go through frost. However, their familiar, fruity sweet taste emerges after cooking. We use them for jams, compotes or jellies, liqueurs and juices are made from the fruits, they are suitable for cakes and fruit soups. In folk medicine, tea from dried or fresh leaves is used for urinary tract diseases.

Due to its high content of active substances, lingonberry has recently become a highly sought-after plant. Its fruits contain fruit acids, tannins, minerals, pectin and especially vitamins. From the leaves we also extract tannins, as well as flavonoids and arbutin, which have beneficial effects on digestion and disinfection of the urinary tract and bladder. Already in distant history, the berries were collected as forest fruits. Swedes called it the red gold of the forest. Previously, however, it was not known for its medicinal properties; only later was it discovered that lingonberry leaves could be used against urinary tract diseases.

Harvesting lingonberry varies. Leaves are collected at different times than berries. We collect leaves in September by carefully pulling them off the twigs and drying them in a well-ventilated place. If we collect lingonberries for later use in the form of juices, it is recommended to harvest them after the first frosts. Lingonberries can also be preserved, and if they are to gel somewhat, the fruits are harvested earlier; semi-ripe fruits can also be collected.

When dealing with cranberries, we must be careful about possible confusion. They clearly differ from blueberries and bilberries by their leaves, as cranberries are evergreen and have red berries. However, they also have poisonous lookalikes, including the aforementioned bilberry, which also has similarly reddish unripe berries, but when ripe they are dark and blue-frosted. Also very similar is the dwarf shrub bog bilberry, whose berries are narrowly elongated and without brown dots on the underside. However, we must also be careful about frequent drinking of tea from cranberry leaves, as their constituents in such quantities could damage the liver. Cranberry tea should also not be drunk by diabetics.

As we have already mentioned, cranberries have great uses both from the berries and from their leaves. Our tip: Cranberry juice – is very suitable for prevention and treatment of urinary tract infections. It is prepared from 5 parts of pulped berries with 1 part sugar. This is left to stand under a lid overnight, the next day the pulp is pressed through a sieve without heating, processed in a juicer into juice, or the mixture is brought to a boil and strained. The juice contains oxalic acid and the recommended daily dose is around 0.1l.

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