Did you know that cranberries are America’s own Superfruit?
First cultivated in the North East and in fact a staple of the Native American Indian diet for hundreds of years, the cranberry has been used for ingredients in food, beverages, medicines, and dyeing materials. It was an important part of indigenous cuisine being mixed with wild game and melted fat to form pemmican, a survival ration for the winter months.
Once pilgrim settlers learned how to use cranberries for a multitude of purposes in the 1600s and realized there was an agricultural opportunity in growing these tangy fruits. The settlers began innovating outside of the naturally formed bogs and wooden scoops to mechanized sorters and screening equipment which took some 300 years to develop into the commercial industry it is today by what is known as wet harvesting.
Growing horizontal on the surface with vine-like stems, or runners, with intertwining roots in the ground, the upright flower buds in the spring with the berries ripening just in time for the fall and made buoyant by flooding the bogs bringing the berry itself to the surface.
The cranberry is now grown en masse (40,000 acres each year) in watery marshes across the Northern United States and they are intrinsic to our diet from essential nutrients to seasonal sauces in the fall and winter.
Fun Fact: the optimal method of pollination are honeybees and bumblebees! So, look after those critters.
Nowadays, Americans eat over 400 million pounds each year, 20 percent of which being consumed during Thanksgiving.
Though it’s unconfirmed, the belief is that it was possibly the dish known as pemmican which was first shared at the festival that was made into an American tradition in 1863.
Considering cranberry sauce and the multitude of other uses we have for this fruit (cranberry vodka) are so popular – why is it really so super!?
Drinking cranberry juice regularly increases the amount of salicylic acid which can reduce swelling, prevent blood clots, and can have anti-tumor effects.
Also high in vitamin C, fiber, and antioxidants, cranberries outrank nearly every fruit and vegetable – including strawberries, spinach, broccoli, red grapes, apples, raspberries, and cherries!
It’s probably important to note that these benefits are only going to have an effect by consuming freshly prepared cranberry dishes versus processed or canned products.
So, to get the best kind of saucing this season, get in touch with our team at, The Paramount Group who can add all the health, culinary creativity, and tongue-tangy goodness of cranberries!