Cranberry History

Did You Know?

During World War II, American troops required about one million pounds of dehydrated cranberries a year.
Did You Know?

In 1816, the first recorded yield of cranberries was grown and harvested in Dennis, Massachusetts.
Did You Know?

Americans consume some 400 millions pounds of cranberries a year – close to 80 million of those pounds during Thanksgiving week.
Did You Know?

Some of today’s productive cranberry bogs are more than 100 years old.
Did You Know?

Small pockets of air inside fresh cranberries cause them to bounce and float in water.
Did You Know?

If you strung together all the cranberries produced in North America they’d stretch from Boston to Los Angeles more than 565 times.
Did You Know?

Native American medicine men used cranberries in poultices to draw poison from arrow wounds.
Sailors used cranberries as a source of vitamin C to prevent scurvy.

Did You Know?

During World War II, American troops required about one million pounds of dehydrated cranberries a year.
Did You Know?

In 1816, the first recorded yield of cranberries was grown and harvested in Dennis, Massachusetts.
Did You Know?

Americans consume some 400 millions pounds of cranberries a year – close to 80 million of those pounds during Thanksgiving week.
Did You Know?

Some of today’s productive cranberry bogs are more than 100 years old.
Did You Know?

Small pockets of air inside fresh cranberries cause them to bounce and float in water.
Did You Know?

If you strung together all the cranberries produced in North America they’d stretch from Boston to Los Angeles more than 565 times.
Did You Know?

Native American medicine men used cranberries in poultices to draw poison from arrow wounds.
Sailors used cranberries as a source of vitamin C to prevent scurvy.

Cranberries weren’t always ‘cranberries’?

For Eastern Indians, they were "sassamanesh.” Cape Cod Pequots and South Jersey Leni-Lenape tribes called them "ibimi," or bitter berry. And the Algonquins of Wisconsin dubbed the fruit "atoqua.” But it was the early German and Dutch settlers who started calling it the "crane berry” because of the flower’s resemblance to the head and bill of a crane. And finally, that was the name that stuck.

There’s nothing like a cranberry.

Cranberries are one of the most unique fruits in the world. One of only three fruits native to North America commercially cultivated, cranberries grow in the wild on long-running vines in sandy bogs and marshes. While they’re primarily harvested in the Northeast, cranberries also grow in other parts of North America, like Wisconsin, Canada and the Pacific Northwest, and in Chile.

Discovering the ‘wonderberry’.

It was Native Americans who first took advantage of the cranberry’s many natural attributes. By mixing mashed cranberries with deer meat, they made a survival food called pemmicana. They also believed in the medicinal value of the cranberry, using the berry in poultices to draw poison from arrow wounds. And the rich red juice of the cranberry was used as a natural dye for rugs, blankets and clothing. All just some of the reasons the cranberry has been called the ‘wonderberry’.

The harvest grows and changes.

But even with its many uses, cranberries weren’t farmed on a large scale until the 1800s. At first, growers picked the berries by hand. They then developed a more efficient dry harvesting technique, later revolutionizing the process with an idea called wet harvesting. By flooding the bog with water, the cranberry’s buoyancy allows it to float to the surface, where they are collected.

And since that time, Ocean Spray growers have continued to harvest the cranberries that go into the juices and snacks you’ve come to love. Learn more about our cranberry harvest.

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