Sub-Total: $0.00
It seems like there are two camps for cranberries – some love them and some … don’t.
They aren’t my absolute favorite berry but I do love that they are so prolific at our place and I’m determined to learn new ways to enjoy them – especially lingonberries.
Store bought cranberries also tend to get super cheap at the end of the season and I also love a good sale – and I absolutely HATE to see good food go to waste!
My new favorite way to enjoy cranberries is to make a sweetened juice with them. We might drink a bit of the juice but primarily, we use it for the second ferment for water kefir or jun (we don’t usually make kombucha but we’d use it for that if we did).
My two favorite ways to make cranberry juice are to either use my steam canner and get the juice right away, or to can the berries in water with a little sugar and let it sit to flavor up.
We had our Lady Homesteaders Christmas party a couple of weeks ago and at the party we all made fire cider and a quart of cranberry juice using fresh cranberries. It was so simple, I just have to share how to do it!
That’s it! You just put 1 1/2 cups of fresh cranberries and 1/2 cup of sugar in a jar, fill with boiling water, put lids and rings on as normal and hot water bath process for 25 minutes. You do need to let it sit for a few weeks for the flavor to develop.
I like to just blend the berries into the juice with my high speed blender before we drink the juice but some people remove the berries completely. It’s up to you.
However, the quicker way to have juice immediately is to use your steam juicer. It’s simple, quick and such an efficient way to flavor drinks. You could even use this juice to make jelly if you’d like!
SWEETENED CRANBERRY JUICE CONCENTRATE
This is a recipe for making sweetened cranberry juice concentrate with a steam juicer using lingonberries or store bought cranberries.
Equipment
- STEAM JUICER
Ingredients
- 6 Lbs Cranberries You can use either lingonberries or store bought cranberries
- 2 Cups Sugar
Instructions
- Set up your steam juicer by filling the bottom reservoir with water and making sure that your spout is properly closed or clipped so no juice can escape during the juice making process.
- Pour 6 pounds of cranberries into the strainer of your steam juicer.
- Add your 2 cups of sugar on top of the cranberries.
- Put the lid on top of the strainer.
- Turn the burner on and wait for the bottom water reservoir to start boiling. Start timing for one hour once the steam starts working.
- After steaming the berries for one hour, turn the burner off.
- Pour juice into proper jars. If you are canning the juice concentrate, I recommend either half-pint or pint jars. For canning, you would process the juice in a hot water bath for 25 minutes. The juice will also store in the refrigerator for about 2 weeks.
- I use this juice mostly to flavor water kefir, kombucha, or Jun. However, it's super tasty as a juice over ice but you will want to dilute it 50% so fill your glass with half cranberry juice concentrate and finish filling with water.