First things first: Happy Halloweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeen. It’s been pouring rain all morning and not showing any signs of letting up, so those cute little candy-crazy ghouls will be slipping and sliding their way along sidewalks painted with soggy yellow leaves tonight. Be careful, kids!

In other news, I’ve just whipped up a couple of crackerjack cranberry creations. So let us consider the cran.

It grows on a shrub-like vine in highly acidic bogs and it’s produced in several Canadian provinces and northern states. Though cranberry sauce is a time-honoured staple on Thanksgiving and Christmas spreads, for years folks have been buying the canned (not home-canned!) stuff, despite cranberry sauce being the easiest thing in the world to make (cranberries+water+sugar: heat + stir for 10 minutes).

The tart, taut crimson fruits are also great to bake with and are perfect for fall and holiday season jams and conserves. Plus, their extra high pectin content means they gel very easily. The best thing to do if you live in a cranberry-producing region is to forget about those flown-in plastic bags at the grocery store and head to your local farmer’s market for some local berries at great prices. I recently bought a basket of Quebec crans that weighed almost five pounds for $13. Here’s an action shot of cranberry harvest time:

Yep, for the past month I’ve been crushing on the cran, big time. For Thanksgiving I made this incredible vodka-spiked cranberry sauce I found on Epicurious. Then I made a cranberry-orange jam (see below). Then, last night I concocted a batch of cranberry and toasted walnut conserve. When cooked with a little water, they make a lovely pop corn-esque popping sound when their skins split open, and that colour! A rich, velvety, sexy, lipstick, boudoir red. When the little orbs boil down, they look like a burbling cauldron of planet Mars. And, of course, there are the health benefits – they’ve nearly reached super-fruit status. But I don’t want to overwhelm you with crantabulousness, so stay tuned for cranberry madness part two.

For now, let’s start with that jam.

Cranberry-orange jam

4 cups (about 1 lb) cranberries

2 cups sugar

1/4 cup water

1 orange (zest and juice)

1 tsp orange flower water

Stir together cranberries, water, orange juice and zest and cook over medium-high heat for about 10-15 minutes, or until the berry skins begin popping open and the fruit softens. At this point I like to turn the heat off for a moment and use a potato masher to squash the berries into the liquid, creating a more uniform consistency. Return to medium heat, stir in sugar then orange flower water and continue to cook at a low boil for five or 10 minutes more, until you’ve hit the thickness you prefer.

Pour into hot, clean jars (it’ll be quite thick so watch out for air bubbles) and process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes.