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The Berry Bit variant of cranberries removes much of the acid so you get the juice and sweetness without all the bite of regular cranberries or the sugar of dried and sweetened ones.

It's not a raw cranberry, it's not a sweetened dried cranberry. It's, well, a whole new kind of cranberry.

As the cranberry harvest (and Thanksgiving) nears, Jonathan D. Smith is spreading the word about his innovation.

For the last four years, Smith has sold IQF (individually quick frozen) cranberries to major wholesale food clients through his Nekoosa, Wis.-based business, Alpine Foods. A while back, at a restaurant show, he undertook to ask chefs: What do you love about cranberries? What do you hate?

The consensus: they have "too much bite." Tart is nice, but they're so tart you can't just toss them in a salad, for example.

Thus challenged, Smith, holder of a PhD in cranberry plant physiology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, brainstormed a solution.

Using nothing more than pressure, vacuum and temperature, he found a way to remove 75 percent of the acidity from the cranberry but keep the juice intact.

Instead of being super-puckery tart (too tart to pop in your mouth to eat), Berry Bit cranberries are mildly tart, similar to the hint of sour in a fresh strawberry.

You can eat these babies out of hand, no sugar needed; add them to your oatmeal, toss them in a fruit salad.

Chemically, they work better in baked goods, they're compatible now with dairy products and meats, and they can be infused with other flavors, even savory ones.

Smith's process (he has three patents pending) "weeps out" the acid. "The plant acts as its own molecular sieve," he said.

Just a pinch of sugar is added back to the Berry Bits after processing, to bring out the cranberry flavor. Smith noticed early in his experiments that the flavor of the de-acidified cranberry was flat. Cranberries naturally contain 8 percent sugar; he adds 5 percent more.

Smith and his chief financial officer and corporate chef, Chris Sohns, sell the Berry Bits now as a commercial ingredient to food companies. They are just introducing them to the retail market. So far, some Sendik's stores, Costco stores, Brennan's Farm Markets and Fresh Market in Brookfield, Wis., have agreed to carry them or are seriously considering it. They also have a Web site, www.berrybits.com.

At Costco, they'll be sold frozen in 4-pound bags. The group of eight Balistreri Sendik's stores hopes to have them in stock soon in 12-ounce clear plastic containers, as do the Brennan's stores. Price has not been determined.

The berries, which are packaged sliced, can be sold in either the freezer or refrigerator case. Because of their low pH, they'll keep refrigerated 45 days, Smith said.

Wisconsin has held the unchallenged crown for cranberry production for 15 years, but Smith is excited about new doors this simple chemical alteration could open for the crop.

Commercial bakers have shied away from heavy use of cranberries because of the problems they cause in baked goods. Because of their high acid level, any leavening in the batter surrounding the cranberries is effectively killed, causing holes in the baked good and an off-flavor, Smith explained.

Likewise, conventional cranberries react with dairy products and meats to impart a rancid or bitter flavor.

The less-acidic Berry Bit cranberry is a much happier match for both. It may not be long before you see cranberry ice cream, cranberry yogurt, cranberry-flavored milk. (Berry Bits soften at the same temperature as ice cream, so they'll be soft to the tooth, not rock hard, Smith said.)

Cranberry bratwurst and other cranberry sausages, in a variety of permutations, are also in the early stages of development.

And the berry itself can be enhanced. Because one thing � acid � is removed, something else can be added to take its place, Smith said. Instead of a pinch of sugar, Alpine Foods has added jalapeno juice (for a custom bratwurst) or a kick of Kikkoman soy sauce (for a turkey product).

Alpine Foods is in research and development with about 100 companies, including such big names as Dole, Kellogg's, Farmland Meats, Smucker's, ice cream companies and yogurt companies, for various Berry Bits applications.

Smith stressed that it is not his intention to compete with cranberry products already out there.

"My whole philosophy is to do with cranberries what Ocean Spray doesn't do," he said. "There's no way I could compete with a $2 billion company." Nor does he view producers of sweetened dried cranberries as competition.

Alpine Foods is based in Nekoosa (near Wisconsin Rapids), in the heart of Wisconsin's cranberry country. Cranberry farmers are his neighbors. He likes it that way.

"My degree is in horticulture," he said. "I'm a research guy who owns a food processing plant. I knew I didn't want to be in academia, I didn't want to be a 'prof.' I wanted to work on a fruit or vegetable that could afford a PhD. I wanted to be out working with the growers and farmers."

It was his University of Wisconsin professors, after he earned his master's degree, who convinced him to stay in Wisconsin for his doctorate and do his thesis on cranberries. Growing up in Pennsylvania, where he earned his undergrad degree, he didn't know anything about cranberries.

The eager researcher isn't limiting his scientific enthusiasm to fall's red fruit.

Choke berries (not to be confused with chokecherries) have been a common crop in Eastern Europe, where they're prized primarily for their medicinal properties, he said.

They're packed with antioxidants. The antioxidant capacity (ORAC) of blueberries, said Smith, is 15; cranberries, 18; and choke berries, a whopping 160. The problem is that aronia (that's the botanical name for choke berries) are loaded with tannins: To eat one raw is "like sucking on a tea bag," Smith said.

Turns out, Wisconsin has the perfect climate for growing choke berries, and a small group of farmers has formed to investigate the possibilities. Smith has been charged with making the berries palatable, to turn them into more of a food product.

If he can alter the flavor profile of cranberries and choke berries, could he do the same thing with rhubarb? Remove the excessive tartness? Make it unnecessary to add so much sugar?

He paused. "I never thought about rhubarb," he said, but he promised to think about it.

Cooks who love cranberries won't want to wait until Thanksgiving to try cooking with the new low-acid cranberry marketed as Berry Bits.

But when the holiday does roll around, making cranberry sauce will be easier than ever. Just cook 2 cups of the cranberries in the microwave for seven minutes � no need to add sugar or water � and it's ready to eat.

In Jonathan Smith's research on cranberries, he discovered from lab tests that the oil found in cranberry seeds contains a rare and highly active form of vitamin E called gamma tocotrienol.

This is the same type of vitamin E used in surgical scar creams, he said. The makers of these creams get their vitamin E from rice oil; the E in cranberry oil is 30 times better, according to Smith's research.

He was very near a deal with a major cosmetic company when he found out how much oil they wanted him to supply.

So he makes and markets his own Dr. Jonathan's cold-pressed cranberry oil lotions, creams and soaps from his Web site, www.berryworks.com, advertising by word-of-mouth only. The products, he says, offer relief from eczema, psoriasis and dry skin and generally help skin look younger and smoother.

Here's how three types of cranberries � frozen raw, low-acid Berry Bits and sweetened and dried � compare in calories, sugar content and moisture content, according to Jonathan Smith, owner of Alpine Foods.

If you're accustomed to cringing as you dump upward of 2 cups of sugar into a cranberry pie, cringe no more. The filling in this plenty-sweet pie has no sugar at all, just cranberries and cornstarch. The 1/2 cup of sugar in the topping adds all the sweetness that's needed.

In bowl, combine berries and cornstarch. Turn into pie shell. Cover edge of pie with foil or pie shield. Bake in preheated oven 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 325 degrees and bake additional 25 minutes.

After the 25 minutes, remove pie from oven, remove foil or pie shield, sprinkle evenly with topping and bake 20 minutes longer. Let cool on rack to room temperature before serving.

Note: Frozen prepared piecrust can be used; no need to thaw before using. Bake 30 minutes instead of 25 before adding the topping.

In saucepan, melt butter. Add rice and water, and bring mixture to a boil. Reduce heat to low, cover with tight-fitting lid and cook 15 minutes. Fluff rice with a fork and add frozen vegetables, then continue cooking over low 3 minutes. Add Berry Bits, stir and cook an additional 2 minutes, until Berry Bits are warmed through. Add salt and pepper to taste.

This cranberry butter from Alpine Foods, which produces the Berry Bits, can be made only with this type of cranberry, says the company's corporate chef, Chris Sohns. With the low acid content, they give the butter a rich cranberry taste without the bitterness imparted by regular cranberries.

Whip butter until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add powdered sugar, Berry Bits and salt, then whip an additional 2 minutes.