“We have a great store of very good wild fruits (such as) the cranberries, which are much like cherries for color and bigness. An excellent sauce is made of them for venison, turkeys and other fowl, and they are better for tarts than either gooseberries or cherries. We have them brought to our homes by the Indians in great plenty.”

The above letter, written in 1680 by an English settler in Burlington, New Jersey, was one of the first written references to cranberries in the New World.

Cranberries, supposedly shared by Native Americans and Pilgrims on that long-ago first Thanksgiving, remain a staple of the holiday menu; this Thanksgiving, Americans will gobble up an estimated 73 million pounds of the tangy red fruit in sauce, relish, muffins and other side dishes.

While you can thank a farmer for your cranberry sauce (New Jersey is third in production, after Wisconsin and Massachusetts), thank Mother Nature for the fruit’s extraordinary health benefits. Cranberries have been shown to lower cholesterol, promote gastrointestinal health, prevent kidney stones and even help ward off some cancers.

“No doubt about it, cranberries are the best fruit for you,” declares Stephen Lee, whose family has been growing cranberries in the Garden State since 1868. “They cleanse and purify the body. They’re very rich in antioxidants. The health news is really tremendous.”

Cranberries are one of only three fruits native to North America (the others are blueberries and Concord grapes). Long before the first Europeans set foot on this continent, Indians used the fruit as food, for medicinal purposes, and as a natural dye. They called it sassamanash, pakim and atoqua; locally, the Lenni Lenape of the Algonquin tribe called cranberries ibimi, or “bitter fruit.” The word cranberry supposedly originated when German and Dutch settlers noticed a resemblance between the cranberry blossom and the head of a crane.

Of Pirates and Pilgrims

Cranberry cultivation in New Jersey is believed to have begun in the mid-1800s, with ship merchants among the primary consumers. They bought the berries for $50 per barrel, then sold them to whalers, who munched on them at sea to offset scurvy.        

Cranberries were also a key ingredient in the colonial delicacy known as pemmican, an early convenience food made of dried venison or buffalo meat that was pounded to a powder, mixed with cranberry paste, formed into a cake and left to dry in the sun. Because it lasted a long time, pemmican was a favorite of pirates and explorers as well as Native American tribes, who socked away supplies of pemmican for consumption during the winter.

The Jersey Pinelands are perfect for cranberries, which thrive in sandy, acidic, well-drained soil, and the Pine Barrens as a whole are proud of their shared agricultural heritage. Both Chatworth and Whitesbog hold cranberry festivals each year; Chatsworth is home to the Philip E. Marucci Center for Blueberry and Cranberry Research of Rutgers University. At Double Trouble State Park in Lacey and Berkeley townships, autumn harvests draw the public in what has become a communal celebration of the ruby fruit. During the 1930s, one of the last big bogs in Cape May County was permanently flooded to become Lake Nummy in Belleplain State Forest.

Until the early 1960s, cranberries were picked by hand, then gathered with scoops that combed the berries from the vine. After World War II, mechanical pickers resembling lawn mowers were devised to shake the berries free and lift them onto a conveyor belt.

While some farms continue the old-fashioned dry harvesting method, most growers today wet-harvest by flooding the bogs with 18 inches of water and using a water reel, which looks like a big egg beater, to churn up the water so the ripe berries float to the surface in a dramatic sea of red. The berries are then corralled at one corner of the bog and pumped out. 

Elizabeth Lee of New Egypt, Ocean County, is credited with making the first cranberry sauce back in 1917. Instead of throwing out damaged berries, she decided to cook them and sell the jelly as “Bog Sweet Cranberry Sauce.” Elizabeth’s company eventually became part of Ocean Spray.

Good, and Good for You
 
But back to those health benefits. Dr. Amy Howell of Rutgers says research continues to prove what old wives have said for generations: cranberries are great for your health.

“Of course there was the assumption for over 100 years that cranberries help prevent urinary tract infections; they thought it was due to the fruit’s acidity,” says Howell. “Now research is saying no—what cranberries actually do is prevent bacteria from sticking to the bladder wall.”

That’s no mean feat, Howell says. Such infections are the second biggest cause of missed work among women. To avoid such infections? “One 8-to-10-ounce glass of cranberry juice a day,” Howell says.

The discovery that cranberries keep bacteria from surviving in the body has led to exciting new research into the fruit’s role in preventing ulcers (which are also caused by bacteria) and dental plaque (ditto).

More importantly, cranberries can lower bad cholesterol and raise good cholesterol. “That’s phenomenal,” says Howell. “Even with good nutrition, it’s very, very hard to raise good cholesterol.” According to a Canadian study, cranberries consumed daily over a three-month period have been shown to increase good cholesterol by 8 percent. Now scientists are looking at the fruit’s role in inhibiting the growth of malignant breast and colon tumors.  

Luckily, the healthy properties in cranberries cannot be cooked out, pasteurized out or baked out. “They maintain their activity through all that, and do it quite well,” Howell says. So when you give thanks on November 27, be sure to thank a cranberry. Then eat up. It’s good for you!

Fruity Facts

As New Jersey growers strive to maintain their dominance in the burgeoning cranberry business, Rutgers University has developed three new high-yielding varieties: Crimson Queen, Mullica Queen and Demoranville.

Cranberries contain air pockets, which led early growers to give them the “bounce test.” Any berries that didn’t bounce when thrown against a wooden table were considered of inferior quality.

Bottoms Up!

A drink frequently downed by the women of Sex and the City has made the cranberry more popular than ever.

The classic Cosmopolitan is made with two parts lemon vodka, one part triple sec, one part cranberry juice and a splash of lime. Cranberry grower Stephen Lee, a member of Ocean Spray’s cooperative of New Jersey farms, enjoys the renown it’s gained through the Cosmo. 

“We prefer to stress the health and heritage of our favorite fruit,” he says. “But if I’m going to drink a Cosmo, it better be the best cranberry juice going. Ocean Spray.”

Best Bite

Our roving foodie recommends made-from-scratch cranberry-walnut muffins made fresh daily at Formica Brothers Bakery. Chewy and sweet, they are typically served with cream cheese.
Sure-to-Please Recipes (from PineyPower.com)

Cranberry Sauce

1 package fresh cranberries
1 cup water
1 cup sugar
finely minced zest from 1/2 orange
1/8 tsp. salt
Splash of cabernet, merlot, etc. (optional)
1/4 cup chopped pecans or walnuts, preferably lightly toasted

Place first six ingredients in saucepan; bring to slow boil, stirring often. Listen for cranberries popping, then cook over slow heat for about 10 minutes. Remove from heat; stir in nuts and let cool. Leftover sauce makes a delicious dip!
Sweet-Tart Cranberry Spread

1 package cream cheese
1/2 cup sour cream
Cranberry sauce to desired taste
1/4 tsp. hot pepper

Serve with crackers. Very festive, and great with wine!


Cranberry Cole Slaw

1 cup cranberries coarsely chopped
3 cups cabbage — finely shredded
2 tbsp. celery, diced
2 tbsp. green pepper, diced
1 can seedless grapes, halved
1/4 cup cranberry juice
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1 tbsp. honey
1 tbsp. vinegar

Combine cranberries, cabbage celery green pepper and grapes. Mix juice, mayonnaise, honey and vinegar and mix with fruits and veggies. Chill.

Quick Cran-carrot Salad

One package pre-shredded carrots
1/2 (or more, to taste) dried cranberries
1/2 cup chopped pecans or walnuts
Mayonnaise to taste

Rinse and drain carrots; mix all ingredients together and refrigerate overnight.

Cranberry Mallow Pie

32 large marshmallows or 3 cups miniature marshmallows
16-ounce can whole berry cranberry sauce
1 cup chilled whipping cream
1 tsp. vanilla extract
pre-made vanilla wafer or graham cracker crust

Combine marshmallows and cranberry sauce in a medium saucepan. Cook on medium-low heat, stirring constantly, just until marshmallows are melted. Remove from heat; cool 10 minutes. Refrigerate, stirring occasionally, about 1 hour or until mixture mounds slightly when dropped from a spoon. Beat whipping cream and vanilla in a small mixing bowl until stiff peaks form. Stir cranberry mixture until blended; fold gently into whipped cream. Pour into crust. Chill until set, at least 5 hours. For a cool treat on a hot day, try freezing pie until firm. To serve, garnish slices with additional sweetened whipped cream, if desired. Makes six servings.

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