When I think of cranberries I think of New England. Maybe you think of Thanksgiving or scones or how they taste with a little vodka, but I think of New England. Now I’m going to start thinking of Wisconsin. You may think of Wisconsin as the dairy state (and the place where you don’t need to be drunk to wear oversized foam cheese hats), but it could just as easily be the Cran state. Did you know that cranberries are native to Wisconsin and have been grown as a commercial crop there since 1860? I didn’t, and I lived in Wisconsin for six years. Wisconsin produces more cranberries than any other state and more than half of all the cranberries grown in the world.
Wow. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that Wisconsin also hosts the largest cranberry festival in the country, which is one of the largest festivals of any kind, anywhere, period. Tens of thousands of people flood the village of Warrens on the last weekend in September for a cranberry-themed fiesta that is part flea market and part art fair.
You can buy or sample an impressive range of cranberry-inspired products. In five hours, I tried: cranberry ice cream, summer sausage with cranberry, a cranberry fritter, and chocolate covered frozen cranberry cheesecake on a stick. It was the stick that sold me. I also bought a six pack of cranberry ale that I won’t be buying again. Need other ideas for how to use your cranberries? How about: cranberry pie, cranberry vinegar, cranberry wine, cranberry coffee cake, cranberry muffins, cranberry salsa, cranberry candy, craisins (dried cranberries), cranberry juice, cranberry jelly beans, and chocolate covered craisins. Need a non-food idea? How about cranberry candles or cranberry oil? None of them sold my favorite cranberry infused product though: the cranberry chipotle cheddar cheese I bought at Carr Valley Cheese earlier in September.
If you get tired of cranberries, don’t worry…go shopping! You can find just about anything at the hundreds of booths squeezed onto the festival grounds, which is essentially the entire town of Warrens and half of Monroe County.
Egyptian cotton sheets were very popular this year, but you could also buy antiques, cartoon-ish vegetables on a pole, fur hats, hardware, fishing rods, plus that gunsling you always wanted. Searching for the perfect Christmas gift? How about old advertising signs, a micorfiber dust cloth, lamp shades, a super shammy, or a dishwasher-safe spatula? And, with this being Wisconsin, beer memorabilia, taps, and, well, beer, are ubiquitous, too.
Gosh, with all this crap to buy, you should probably bring a shopping cart – maybe even two.
Heck, while you’re here you can even find out if you’re going to Heaven. Hey, shoppers – what two questions would YOU ask someone to find out if their soul is consigned to eternal damnation?
And, just when I thought I had seen it all, I came across a simple game (throwing a bean bag through a hole) that had a very unfortunate name. (I’m familiar with this game, although when I played the rules were a bit different…)
See more pictures here.
© Dean Klinkenberg, 2008
