Cranberries Harvested by Men in the Water
No they are a naturally occurring fruit that seems to have sprung up approximately 10,000 years ago.
Where they came From
Many thousands of years ago the ice caps started melting in North America and these shrinking glaciers left large areas of wet land, which today are creatively called wetlands and/or bogs.
That type of soil, marshy, wet, cool and sandy is perfect for cranberries to thrive in and that’s where they started growing on this continent.
From then on Native Americans have used them extensively for food and medicine, as well as for use as a dye.
Processing Cranberries
Farming
Commercial farming of cranberries started in the 1800s and has grown to what we have today. These farms and cranberry bogs are mainly found just a handful of states.
Farmers grow them on cranberry plants the way they originally grew 10,000 years ago, but found a more efficient way of harvesting (picking) them.
They flood the crops with water the day before and then scoop them up the next day. That’s why we all see those cool pictures of cranberry farmers thigh-deep in water surrounded by a lake of floating, red berries.
It kind of looks man made and artificial but it’s not. It’s just a neat process of picking them. The berries that are picked off the plant are sold fresh in your local grocery store. The wet harvested ones are used for juices and other cranberry products.
Cranberry Mojito
Cranberry Holidays
There are 2 unofficial cranberry holidays which I guess can be considered “man made” since they were made up on the spot with no real collective acceptance.
The first is National Eat a Cranberry Day and the other is National Cranberry Relish Day.
Look them up if you want to add to your trivia knowledge bank.
There’s lots more interesting and fun facts about cranberries on this blog, including recipes, so browse through and get to know this natural, non man-made, interesting berry.
Hope this helps.
– Cranby
