Every far-fetched flavour needs a way home, and this one is ours. The cranberry is native to North America, and it's the state berry of Massachusetts, chosen in 1994 after a class of fifth-graders lobbied for it.
Long before the bogs, Wampanoag people gathered wild cranberries and dried them to last the winter. On Martha's Vineyard, the Aquinnah Wampanoag still celebrate Cranberry Day every October. Commercial growing began on Cape Cod in 1816, and in 1930 three growers formed the cooperative that became Ocean Spray, in Hanson. At harvest the bogs are flooded: cranberries have pockets of air inside, so they float, and the water turns red.
Pumpkin is older still, grown in the Americas for thousands of years. Early colonists baked it whole in the ashes, filled with spiced milk. No crust.
“the state berry, cooked into jam. the shortest trip on the menu.”
The filling is made the day before, the dough rests overnight, and every cookie is filled and closed by hand. Then it's baked the morning you pick it up. No preservatives, because it was never meant to sit on a shelf.