Cranberries were first used by Native Americans, who recognized the versatility of the fruit as a food, fabric dye and healing agent.
Native American introduced cranberries to New England colonists who quickly adopted them into their cookery. They also began utilizing the fruit to help prevent scurvy.
As settlement grew across North America, the market demand for cranberries gave rise to commercial cultivation of the berry.
In 1728 cranberries were identified as a food that children could eat between meals. America’s first cookbook author Amelia Simmons, recommend in American Cookery (1976) that turkey be served with cranberries a connection made like since early colonial times.
The first commercial endeavour to produce cranberry as a crop was in Dennis Massachusetts by Captain Henry Hall.
The revolutionary War Veteran, he planted the first commercial cranberry beds in Massachusetts on Cape Cod in 1816. Hall noticed that a wealth of large berries was produced when the tides and windswept some sand into his bog.
Bogs became the ideal medium for cranberry growth. By 1820 he was shipping his cranberries to Boston and New York City. Boston became the major cranberry market for fruit harvested from the first cultivated plantings, as well as fruit gathered from native population.
Today, cranberries are commercially given throughout the northern part of the United States and are available. United States produced 680 million pounds on 38,500 acres.
History of American cranberries
