by Mike Reimer, Churchill Wild
The Cranberry Queen, Helen Webber, on the shores of Hudson Bay at Seal River Heritage Lodge.
What do 5,000,000 Cranberries look like?
Why not ask the Cranberry Queen, who has personally handled each one of those delectable beauties. Helen Webber, the Grand Queen of the Webber/Churchill Wild empire, has spent the last 40 Septembers faithfully collecting buckets and buckets of incredibly tasty wild cranberries with which to complement the lodges’ Arctic cuisine.
It takes some real dedication to the needs of the palate to spend all those cold fall afternoons crouched over the berry patch all the while keeping a sharp eye out for wandering polar bears. Many recipes for our bestselling cookbook series Blueberries and Polar Bears were developed by Helen and friend Marie Woolsey using these marvelous berries to enhance a variety of meals at the lodges.
Additional cranberry pickers are always welcome! From L to R, Mike Reimer, Helen Webber, Krysten Martens, Karli (Reimer) Friesen.
Wild cranberries vastly surpass any tame grown berries for flavour, texture and gourmet pizzazz, and one taste of these tundra delicacies over snow goose pie or roasted turkey pretty much ensures the supermarket variety stays on the shelf. And let’s not forget one of our all-time favourites, Cranberry Cake with Butter Sauce!
Helen Webber. Cranberry Queen and Cookbook Author. At home on the tundra.
This past fall while cooking (yesssss, Helen is still working!) for the Arctic Safari at Seal River Lodge, Helen took a little time to harvest the bountiful crop of berries sprayed across the tundra near the lodge.
Along with her trusty assistants, Helen hauled in 300 cups of crimson berries in six hours, setting a new record for the foodie team and likely establishing Helen as the most prolific cranberry picker of all time! I’m thinking there must be a spot in the Guinness record books for this category.
Hopefully some of the kids and grandkids pick up on this talent, as Helen keeps threatening to hang up her bucket for good soon.
