Cranberry

For the cranberry sauce, it was a long, wet road to Thanksgiving dinner. Along Burlington County's Route 563 - known as the cranberry artery - are swampy farms where the berry is king. The harvest is one sloshing step. And only after cooking do the berries become sauce. The cranberry business has steadily grown in the last 2 1/2 decades as cranberries have gone from being an almost entirely seasonal product to one that is consumed year-round. The market is expected to flourish.

Some of the Cutts family members have taken jobs in construction or other trades to help support their Tabernacle, N.J., cranberry farm. And Joe Darlington has halved his year-round crew of a dozen workers and has forgone plans to refurbish the 30-year-old office and storage space on his Browns Mills cranberry farm. They are just two of dozens of cranberry farms, comprising about 3,900 acres in South Jersey, where growers are bracing for a cranberry market coming off its worst year since 1960.

Stephen V. Lee Jr., 94, who with his brother turned his family's struggling farm into a successful cranberry business, died of congestive heart failure Tuesday at Medford Leas, where he had been a resident since March. Mr. Lee's son Stephen 3d said the family had been "struggling just to pay taxes" when his father started Lee Bros. Inc. with his brother, John, in 1949. The 2,000-acre spread in Speedwell, near Chatsworth in Burlington County, has been a member of the Ocean Spray Cooperative since 1950.

This is the time of year for a strange black bee in Burlington County to do what experts call the "sundance. " It's a ballet that happens only during the few weeks when the tiny pink and magenta cranberry flowers bloom, and it includes an entire life cycle - mating, building a home, gathering food and reproducing. And it may hold the secret to a more bounteous cranberry crop. Scientists, including one from Ocean Spray Cranberries Inc., want to know if the leaf-cutter bee can boost cranberry crops.

On a recent Saturday at 2 a.m., Luis Ortiz was driving around the 900-acre Haines & Haines cranberry farm when he came upon a pickup truck that had just smashed into a tree at the edge of a narrow road. Inside the truck was the driver, killed in the collision. Ortiz drove to a phone and alerted the police, who after examining the accident, looked inside Ortiz's pickup truck and found a 12-gauge shotgun and dozens of shells. They asked Ortiz what he had been doing in that desolate area of the Pine Barrens in the middle of the night.

New Jersey's cranberry harvest crests the next few weeks as millions of the tiny red berries bob to the top of flooding bogs. Beneath the surface, the harvest could be less placid. Falling prices, a key lawsuit, and the apparent decision of one of the country's top cranberry growers not to harvest this season have cast shadows over an industry more associated with festivals and Thanksgiving. Prices plummeted from $61.80 a barrel in 1996 to $19.30 in 2000. And the total value of the crop brought to market in New Jersey dropped nearly three quarters, from $29 million in 1996 to $8 million last year, according to federal statistics.

The endangered Pine Barrens tree frog can be incited to love. All it needs is a pleasant pond in the Pinelands, a few verdant shrubs, and a lustful, throaty "quonk!" One male quonks, and soon - not to be outcroaked - all the other boys quonk, sending an eerie, yearnful chorus into the summer night air. Imagine then a female's disappointment when, after hopping over to a sweet- pepper bush in hopes of meeting her mate, all she finds is mustached ecologist Joel Gove blaring frog calls from a tape recorder.

The state Department of Environmental Protection announced yesterday that it would rethink its proposed settlement with powerful Burlington County Republican J. Garfield DeMarco, who critics say got off easy for one of the biggest wetlands violations in New Jersey history. The announcement came just days after the state Inspector General and the federal Environmental Protection Agency released reports critical of the settlement, under which DeMarco would pay no fine for expanding his cranberry business into 22 acres of Pineland wetlands in Woodland Township.

Under a steel-gray sky, workers waded through the swirling mosaic of red, pink, and yellow cranberries at a Burlington County bog last week as wide-eyed onlookers snapped photos. A year's worth of labor had come down to this moment, when the Lee family and its helpers, filled with excitement and a sense of urgency, began the autumn harvest ritual. They pushed the berries across the water toward a vacuum that moved the fruit through a hose, then onto a conveyor and into a storage bin, as visitors and a class of college students watched from a gravel road.

Big money in the form of political contributions to lawmakers is having a growing impact on environmental policy at the state and national levels, according to advocates of campaign finance reform and representatives of environmental organizations. "The political game of 'pay to play' has seriously damaged efforts by environmental organizations to protect the environment and represent the public interest," Harry Pozycki, chairman of the government watchdog group Common Cause New Jersey, said at a Statehouse news conference yesterday.

This snappy cocktail created by Vincent Stipo from Vernick Food and Drink provides just the tonic to the tension of getting the turkey on the table. Plan ahead and make the base in advance, then appoint a bartender to mix drinks. - Maureen Fitzgerald Boggy Collins Makes 1 cocktail 1 1/2 ounces Tito's Handmade Vodka (or other good-quality vodka) 2 ounces fresh cranberry puree (see recipe below) 1/2 ounce fresh lime Splash of ginger beer Orange wedge or peel (for garnish)

William S. Haines Jr. was making his daily rounds at Hog Wallow this week, driving over narrow, dusty roads between the sprawling cranberry bogs and reservoirs. At an intersection, he pulled over, then walked into a field with two workers and looked down. A parasitic dodder plant was winding through the cranberry vines. "Left alone, it will multiply and multiply and become a huge mass," Haines said. "We're fanatical about getting rid of it. "It's like a farmer told me years ago: 'Nothing improves your farm like your feet on it,' and that's true," he said.

Tables across the country will be overflowing with myriad traditions on Thanksgiving Day. Most will have turkeys, some will have ethnic eats such as ravioli, collard greens, or kugel. But there's one thing all the holiday revelers will have in common: Scouring the fridge the next day and gorging on leftovers. "I actually look forward to the leftovers more than the dinner itself," says Peter McAndrews, chef and owner of Philadelphia's Modo Mio, Monsù, and Paesano's. It's a sentiment many hosts would repeat.

Risk factors linked to sudden cardiac death University of Pennsylvania researchers have identified risk factors that put postmenopausal women with heart disease at high risk of sudden cardiac death - abruptly dying of a lethal arrythmia. Currently, the only established risk factor for sudden cardiac death is weak heart contractions, measured by an echocardiogram. But many heart disease patients whose heart develops a lethal arrythmia don't have this weakening. For their study, the Penn researchers analyzed data from a previous study of 2,763 postmenopausal heart disease patients.

That sublime cross-genre warbler Fergie and her gang, the Black Eyed Peas , will soothe the savage NFL soul as the official act for Fox's Super Bowl XLV halftime show Feb. 6 at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas. Fox says the show, which last year drew 153 mil viewers in America, is the most-watched musical event of the year. Previous acts include the Who , Bruce Springsteen , Tom Petty , Prince , and Sir Paul McCartney . Having their turkey . . . . . . and eating it, too. Celebs eat turkey - and even give thanks - just like you and me. Michael Douglas went all-American, taking wife Catherine Zeta-Jones , 41, and kids, Carys , 7½, and Dylan , 10, to Epcot Center in Florida on Wednesday, People reports.

IN NEW JERSEY, where open land is disappearing faster than water ice on a summer day, the Pine Barrens stand out as the largest national reserve east of the Mississippi River, stretching roughly from Lakehurst to Cape May County. The people who live here are content with a slower pace amid lakes, bogs and forests far removed from the hustle of Philadelphia - even though the city is less than an hour away. All things "Piney," as folks native to the area used to call themselves, will be celebrated June 26 during the 27th annual Whitesbog Blueberry Festival at the Historic Whitesbog Village in Browns Mills, N.J., about 40 miles from Philadelphia.

THANKSGIVING can't come soon enough. When the leaves start to change, and the city is cloaked in the sweet scent of fall, there are few things as comforting as the thought of gathering around the dining room table at Mom's house to argue about politics and football while we stuff our bellies. If the idea of waiting for Turkey Day makes you want to boycott the month of October, hop over to these classic Philly haunts for an inspired teaser. Your taste buds will thank you. Jones 700 Chestnut St. More Than Just Ice Cream 1119 Locust St. Here's your mission should you choose to accept it: Take your hands off the keyboard, push your chair away from your desk, stand up, grab your jacket and head to Center City.

I began at The Inquirer long ago covering the Pinelands, so I regard South Jersey's berry wines with both nostalgia and trepidation. Nostalgia, because I've seen few things more gorgeous than a flooded cranberry bog in fall harvest, its berry-covered waters glistening like a giant crimson mirror. Trepidation, because I all too vividly recall the tastebud trauma of my first sip of blueberry "champagne" at one of the wineries nearby. It was essentially grape rotgut injected with cloying berry syrup.

Under a steel-gray sky, workers waded through the swirling mosaic of red, pink, and yellow cranberries at a Burlington County bog last week as wide-eyed onlookers snapped photos. A year's worth of labor had come down to this moment, when the Lee family and its helpers, filled with excitement and a sense of urgency, began the autumn harvest ritual. They pushed the berries across the water toward a vacuum that moved the fruit through a hose, then onto a conveyor and into a storage bin, as visitors and a class of college students watched from a gravel road.

They're obscured in vast fields of leafy vines where they're slowly changing color from lighter hues to blush. Deeper reds will appear in a few weeks, just before the autumn harvest. Across historic Whitesbog in Burlington County and at 34 other New Jersey farms, cranberries are thriving. The state's production is expected to increase about 5 percent this year. That rosy forecast by the U.S. Department of Agriculture came this week as officials projected a 10 percent drop in the nation's cranberry output and a steady rise in worldwide demand.