Cranberry Tincture & Alcohol-Free Extract

Cranberry (Vaccinium macrocarpon), the American or large cranberry, is a trailing evergreen shrub of the heath family, Ericaceae, native to acid bogs and wet sandy shores of eastern North America from Newfoundland to North Carolina and west to Minnesota, and farmed in flooded beds in Wisconsin, Massachusetts, and New Jersey. Its wiry, creeping stems form dense mats with tiny, oval, leathery leaves that bronze in winter. In early summer it bears small, nodding pink flowers whose four petals curl back from a pointed beak of stamens, like a crane's head, which gave the name. The tart, glossy red berries contain air pockets and float. We extract the dried berry.