Welcome to November 22, 2021 on the National Day Calendar. Today we celebrate spicing things up and a sauce with pucker power. 

When you think of peppers, you probably think of spicy foods. And while that’s true, there are many varieties of pepper. Like the bell pepper, a mild version. These colorful fruits—yes, peppers are fruits—have more vitamin C than oranges and they’re chock full of vitamin A. Also, red, green, and yellow peppers…they’re all the same thing. Their colors indicate different levels of ripeness. But of course, there are spicy peppers too, like the habanero or the Carolina Reaper. If for some reason you bite into one of these fiery peppers, don’t reach for a glass of water. That’ll only make things worse. Grab a glass of milk or some ice cream to cool the heat. November is National Pepper Month, a time to test your tolerance for kicking up the heat!

While cranberry relish is a staple on the Thanksgiving table, we can be fairly certain it wasn’t part of the first Thanksgiving meal. The cranberry relish we know and love originated in the early 1900s. Marcus Urann, a New England lawyer, bought a cranberry bog in 1912 and later formed the company Ocean Spray. He found that fresh cranberries had a short shelf life and the window for harvesting and selling them was relatively small. The canning process delivered a solution to extend their marketability and 100 years later we still enjoy this sweet tart flavor. While plenty of folks like to spice up their own recipe from fresh cranberries, the jiggly kind that comes in a can is a perennial favorite. On National Cranberry Relish Day, sauce it up anyway you please.

I’m Anna Devere and I’m Marlo Anderson. Thanks for joining us as we Celebrate Every Day.

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