Cranberries...people either love them or hate them. I'm one that loves them, so earlier this week while thinking about the big feast, I decided to research how cranberries were grown. I knew they were native berries that grew in bogs, etc., but I didn't
really know the mechanics of it. Before learning about their cultivation, however, I stumbled across a history of the berry and was delighted to learn cranberries were named after one of my favorite birds, the Sandhill Crane...
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| Pilgrims and other early European settlers thought the tiny cranberry blossom resembled a Sandhill Crane and soon took to calling them crane-berries. Over the years, the name of the sweet and tangy native fruit was shortened to cranberry. |
With the long slender stem, the pink-white petals that curve back forming a head, the red on at the top of the stamen creating a "forehead," which then curves down to a long tapered "bill," it's easy to see how a cranberry blossom would make people think of a Sandhill Crane...
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| A long slender neck, a whitish head, a rosy red forehead, and a long bill....yep, looks like a cranberry blossom to me! |
Cranberries (
Vaccinium macrocarpon) are native to North America. They are unique and grow only in acid peat soil with a supply of fresh water, sand and a long growing season (April to November, which makes them the perfect Thanksgiving treat!). They also require dormancy and cold temps in winter to complete their life cycle. Cranberries grow on vines in beds made up of layers of sand, peat, gravel and clay. Mother Nature created the original "bogs" from glacial deposits. Man continues to refine the process today:
Click here for "Cranberries 101" - an introduction to how cranberries grow from the Cape Cod Cranberry Growers Association
Click here for a history of cranberries from the Cape Cod Cranberry Growers Association
Click here for a description of cranberry crop pollination by bees
Click here for the heath benefits of cranberries
Happy Thanksgiving!
(...and yeah! for the crane berry.)
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