I am in the US this week for the first time in a few years, and aside from being astonished at the size of the vehicles everyone drives, it is high autumn pumpkin spice season here. A lot of dairy products, from caramel lattes to pumpkin spice creamer jiggers at a diner, are festooned with little pumpkins and bright red and yellow leaves. The creamer market remains strong here.

I have been visiting Ocean Spray‘s cranberry bogs during harvest time, and it was a pleasure to both see where the cranberries come from, and how they are processed and packaged for consumers. It was a true far to fork experience and I will never look at my jars of cranberry sauce in the same way again.

I now know how hard everyone works to make sure we have that delicious addition to our roast dinners and Christmas feasts, at harvest time and all through the year. Like the dairy industry, Ocean Spray is a co-operative of 700 farmers in the US, Canada and Chile.

I also found the history of the cranberry a fascinating one. One of only three native berries in North America (the other being the Concorde grape and the blueberry), the cranberry has earned its place on Thanksgiving tables.

The folks at Ocean Spray are also working to add cranberries to many more products. See the blog photo for the Sargento product that one of the good marketing people found for me when I mentioned that I had seen a cranberry snack product with cheese in the supermarket aisles in the US that I had tried before and enjoyed.

Cheese and fruit are underused companions nowadays, but they have always had a place at our table. There is nothing we like more than a Brie-type cheese on a baguette with cranberry sauce in our house. The combination of sweet and savoury works for us.

Overall, a great experience. I’d recommend it if someone ever offers you a bog tour.

• Suzanne Christiansen, editor, Dairy Industries International. Keep in touch via email: [email protected] Twitter: @dairyindustries 
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