As much as folks swoon over pumpkin in the fall, I can swoon over cranberry. I cannot wait for those small red powerhouse berries to show up in the produce section of the grocers so I can make cranberry bread, cranberry sauce, and more. More? You’ve got it in this post. Keep reading for nine delicious way to serve fermented cranberries.

The holiday season means more than pumpkin spice lattes, it also means the world turns their attention to all things cranberry. Cranberry sauce, cranberry wine, cranberry orange muffins…you’d be hard pressed to find any of these things on the table outside of holiday meals in November and December.

While cranberries are harvested late in the fall, they have an amazingly long shelf life. They can store in the refrigerator or root cellar for the better part of the winter and have you eating fresh cranberries right into the spring when you’re tired of winter fare and craving fruit.

Incorporating cranberries into your ferments further multiplies their nutritional value, and helps them stay fresh even longer.

9 Delicious Ways to Serve Fermented Cranberries

Colleen at Grow Forage Cook Ferment makes delectable honey-fermented cranberries by using natural lacto-fermentation in honey. The cranberries are submerged in honey, brine, and starter and left to ferment for about five days.

If you’re hoping to go directly from whole cranberries to a sauce, try this fermented cranberry sauce recipe from O’Lardy. Simply throw honey, pecans, spices, and whey starter into a food processor and chop it up before the ferment. They say it’ll be fresh and tasty for two full months, but I imagine it’d last a good bit longer if you don’t eat it up first!

Storey publishing shares one of their more exotic recipes from Firey Ferments for a chocolate cranberry mole sauce. It combines fresh cranberries, dried cherries, cocoa powder, chili powder, and fresh orange juice into a flavorful fermented mole sauce. I imagine I may use this recipe throughout the year, rather than just during the holiday season.

Christmas Kraut takes the flavors you know and love from traditional sauerkraut and adds in apples, orange juice and you guessed it…cranberries. The added color and fall flavors really help this ferment shine on your holiday table.

To take those fall flavors up a notch, try this lacto-fermented cranberry apple butternut relish from Pixies Pocket. Adding in butternut helps provide texture, and the nutty squash flavors will help balance out your ferment, not to mention make it a great fall favorite.

If you think adding butternuts is a bit much, keep it simpler with this cranberry apple relish from They’re Not Our Goats. This fall-flavored relish was their very first batch using their new fermentools kit.

You’ll often see orange flavors paired with cranberries. But ginger complements cranberry just as well as orange and has it’s own host of health benefits. This recipe for fermented cranberries and ginger incorporates both into a quick ferment that’s easy to make and gets your taste buds tingling!

For something completely different, try adding cranberries to this probiotic fig butter or this simple fermented apple butter. Cranberries will complement either recipe nicely and should get even your pickiest holiday guests to ask for seconds.

For something alcoholic, try adding cranberries to homemade hard cider using this recipe for fermented crab apple cider. Though not kid-friendly, home-fermented beverages are a great way to get a skeptical family to try a home ferment. Maybe it’s not sauerkraut, but it’s a first step toward them accepting your home fermenting lifestyle.

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If you’re new to fermenting fruits, check out our tips for fermenting fruit successfully.  Then, visit our store for your Starter Kit.

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Ashley is an off-grid homesteader in central Vermont. She is passionate about fermentation, charcuterie, and foraging. Read more about her adventures at PracticalSelfReliance.com.