Cape Cod Cranberry History, from Provincetown

The Cranberry is one of only three fruits that can claim it’s origin back to North American soil, the two others are the Blueberry and the Concord grape. The tart, petite cranberry was a staple of Native Americans who primarily used the crushed fruit in a mixture of wild game meat and melted fat named Pemmican. The Benzoic acid of the Cranberry was a powerful natural preservative. Along with bread baked from a mixture of mashed berries and cornmeal, Native Americans used Cranberries to dye blankets and rugs, and as a medicinal ingredient for the treatment of arrow wounds.

When settlers began landing on the shores of Provincetown, Cape Cod in 1620, Native people graciously taught them of the little berry’s virtues. (It is interesting to note here that the Pilgrims first landing place was Provincetown, Massachusettes, not Plymouth as many believe). Some tribes called the berries Sassamanash and the Delaware Indians of New Jersey used the cranberry as a symbol of peace.

The Cape Cod settlers named them “Caneberries” because of their slim stem and downward hanging blossom that resembled the head and beak of the Sandhill crane, a consumer of the berries. The berry is larger than the leaves, and starts out white, turning deep red when fully ripe. Cranberry flowers are dark pink with reflexed petals and are pollinated by local honey bees.

The berries soon became a settler’s staple, along with cornmeal and salted cod. Cranberries began to go to sea as well, to ward off scurvy, a condition characterized by general weakness, anemia, gum disease, and skin hemorrhages a disease resulting from a lack of vitamin C. It wasn’t until 1683 that the settlers began to make cranberry juice.

In the town of Dennis on Cape Cod in Massachusettes, is where cultivation of Cranberries began in 1816, spurred by Revolutionary War Vetern and Sea Captain, Henry Hall. Taking note that the wild Cranberries growing in his cow pasture grew more abundantly when sand blew over them, he relocated the bovines to the adjacent “Molly’s Pasture” and began to transplant the hearty vines and spread sand over them. These trailing vines, with runners up to six feet long, grow in layers of sand and peat in glacier-formed, acidic beds called “bogs”. A Cranberry vine will survive indefinitely, some in Massachusetts reported to be over 150 years old.

Many Sea Captains and ship builders, in response to a slowing ship building industry, began to cultivate Cranberries and in the 1820’s were first exported to Europe. Cranberry sauce was first served under the order of General Ulysses S. Grant during the siege of Petersburg in 1864. Commercial production began in 1912 by the Cape Cod Cranberry Company which marketed the product as “Ocean Spray Cape Cod Cranberry Sauce”. Merging with other growers resulted in the now world famous Ocean Spray corporation. The United States produces 400 million pounds of Cranberries annually, and if you strung together all the Cranberries grown in North America last year, they would stretch from LA to Boston

Cape Cod Cranberry Facts:

The Cranberry’s botanical name is vaccinium oxycoccos coming from the Latin vacca, which translates to “cow”, whom, along with the bears and Sandhill crane enjoy the fruit. Oxycoccos refers to leaves which are sharp and this variety is grown primarily in Europe. In North America, the prominent variety is named vaccinium macrocarpon, from macro, meaning large with oval shaped leaves. Also of note are Highbush Cranberries (viburnum trilobum) which grow on a pointed leaf, dwarf evergreen shrub and have a single inedible seed. They may be used interchangeably in any Cranberry recipe once the seed is removed.