Cranberries are pollinated by BEES

The Cranberry

400 MILLION pounds of cranberries are consumed in the U.S. each year (20% of them at Thanksgiving)

Cranberries were first cultivated in Dennis, MA, in 1816

A low, creeping vine with fruit that starts out white and ripens to a deep red, the cranberry is native to North America.

Want to make sure you’ve got good fruit? Ripe cranberries BOUNCE!

The word cranberry is said to be derived from “craneberry,” so named because the flowers resemble the head of a CRANE

The first known recipe for cranberry sauce is found in a Pilgrim cookbook, circa 1663

Native Americans made PEMMICAN by pounding cranberries, melted animal fat and dried meat together. The long-storing, compact, high-energy food was used as rations for long-haul expeditions.

Cranberries were commercialized in Massachusetts and New Jersey in the 1840’s, which coincided with the wider availability (and affordability) of GRANULATED SUGAR which was used to sweeten the face-puckeringly tart berries.

Cranberries grow in acidic bogs, which are flooded during harvest. The berries float and are skimmed from the water’s surface.

Cranberries contain salycilic acid, the active ingredient in ASPIRIN

Small pockets of air inside the berry cause cranberries to FLOAT

The oldest continuously producing cranberry beds in Massachusetts and Wisconsin have been growing for nearly 150 YEARS

It takes about 4500 cranberries to make one gallon of juice.