Cranberries Galore in Rockefeller Center

Every year before the holidays kick off, Ocean Spray brings a gigantic cranberry bog to the middle of Manhattan-smack in the middle of Rockefeller Center. In the realm of crazy and amazing things to behold in New York City, a 1,500-square-foot bog filled with 2,000 lbs. of floating cranberries will definitely not go unnoticed.

This year, Ocean Spray debuted an open-air pop-up restaurant inside the “Big Apple Bog” and invited Ming Tsai-owner and executive chef of Blue Ginger restaurant to host the “Cranberry Mix & MINGle.”

Along with 30 other guests, I was able to attend the event-I even got INTO the bog in waders at 8 months pregnant-I wasn’t about to pass that opportunity up. We met the Ocean Spray growers, learned all about cranberry harvesting and ate the delectable creations of Chef Ming. It was a pretty neat night.

Have you ever heard of a cranberry bog? Apparently three quarters of Americans have never heard of one-I was one of them last year before this same event took place. The harvesting of cranberries is a really cool process, actually. When they are ready, the beds they are grown in are actually flooded so that the cranberries float to the top and are easy to corral with reel harvesters. They are then conveyed and taken to a facility for cleaning and packaging.

I personally will be making my own cranberry sauce tomorrow, using the incredible Jennifer Perillo’s Spiced Scented Cranberry Sauce recipe. Making home made cranberry sauce is actually really easy-so easy that it’s hard to believe that 75% of Americans buy canned cranberry sauce for Thanksgiving. I challenge you to try to make it on your own this year!

These are the kinds of adventures that I feel lucky to be apart of and will remember as a part of our New York City life long after we leave. I’m already nostalgic.

For recipes all-things-cranberry and information from Ocean Spray, head over to their Ocean Spray Kitchen site.

I was not compensated in any way for this post.