All-Time Favorite
CRANBERRY RECIPES
CRANBERRIES
the Year ’Round Berries with the Bounce
The Beginning of the Berries
Cranberries are truly North American berries. Before Columbus came tothe new world, the tangy wild cranberries had an important place ineveryday life here. Indian squaws used cranberries to brighten up food.
The Wampanoag Indians of Cape Cod area treated wounds frompoisoned arrows with a cranberry dressing. Squaws made their rugs andblankets colorful with the red cranberry juice.
Pilgrim women learned of this wild berry from the friendly Indians.They soon began to create their own ways of fixing cranberries fortheir tables. They made cranberry sauces, bubbling tarts and nogs.
The Naming of the Berries
Cranberries were called different names by different Indians: “Sassamanesh”by eastern Indians and “Atoqua” by the Algonquians in Wisconsin.In New Jersey, where cranberries were the symbol of peace,“Pakimintzen” meant cranberry eater.
The word “cranberry” was a contraction of crane berry, an earlyname given to the berries because their pale pink blossoms resembled thehead of a crane. Cranes were seen in the lowlands, enjoying the berries.
The Taming of the Berries
Cultivation of cranberries began in Massachusetts nearly 200 years afterthe landing of the Pilgrims. In 1816 Henry Hall of Dennis, Cape Cod,noticed that cranberries seemed to grow larger and juicier where sandfrom the dunes blew over the vines. Cultivation today came from thissimple observation made more than 150 years ago.
Cranberries grow on peat soil that has been covered with a threeinch layer of sand. Cuttings or branches from existing cranberry vines areplanted deep enough to take root in the peat soil beneath the sand. Thevines, planted about six inches apart, gradually spread over the groundforming a thick green carpet. The vines are weeded in the spring, prunedin the fall, fertilized and resanded every three or four years. Vines areprotected from frost by flooding and irrigated in time of drought.
Birds are needed to control the insects. Bees pollinate the blossoms.
Cranberries were first picked by hand then by wooden fingeredscoops which combed the berries from the vines. Since World War II,the scoops have been replaced by mechanical pickers which completethe harvest faster and cut down risk of frost damage.
