Did You Know? Amazing Facts About Cranberries

What fruit is native to North America, grows in bogs, and is synonymous with the holiday season?

It’s cranberries, of course!

Naturally tart and brilliantly-colored, these little nutrient-packed nuggets invoke memories of the holidays – cranberry sauce served with the Thanksgiving turkey, cranberry-flavored punch dished out at Christmas parties, and if your lucky, some tasty cranberry and white chocolate bark will make an appearance at your home this year.

Even though cranberries are often thought of as a winter treat, they can, and should be, enjoyed all year round. After all, who doesn’t love a cold, refreshing crantini on a hot summer evening, or some sweetened dried cranberries sprinkled on a bed of fresh California micro-greens?

Cranberries have been consumed for centuries in the United States; according to the U.S. Cranberry Marketing Committee, Native Americans considered the cranberry a staple in the 1500’s, eating the berries fresh, ground, or baked into bread to prevent scurvy. In the early 1600’s Pilgrims were introduced to cranberries by Indigenous Americans, leading to an explosion in popularity of these vitamin-rich superfruits, which grew wild in low-lying areas throughout New England and the Northeast.

The first commercial cranberry crops were said to have been started by Captain Henry Hall in 1816, while the Wisconsin commercial cranberry industry was founded by Edward Sackett in 1860. Mr. Sackett traveled from New York to Berlin, Wisconsin, where he purchased 700 acres of wild cranberry fields which he cultivated, selling his berries in Chicago for $15 a barrel.

Since that time, cranberries have gained a reputation as a ‘superfruit’, thanks to their tremendous nutritional profile. A 3 ounce serving of fresh or IQF (flash-frozen) cranberries contain just 46 scant calories, no fat, and nearly 5 grams of dietary fiber – that’s close to 20 percent of the daily recommended fiber needed for an adult!

Better yet, each serving of cranberries has 22% of the U.S.D.A.’s recommended Vitamin C intake for adults,which explains why Native Americans and the Pilgrims fought Scury, a.k.a. Vitamin C deficiency, by eating cranberries.

Cranberries are loaded with more naturally-occurring antioxidants than just Vitamin C; there are significant Vitamin E levels in these tart berries, and the same flavinoids that give cranberry skins their distinctive, blood-red color also contain compounds that can be protective against some cancers and artery-clogging cholesterol.

And just when you thought there couldn’t be any more reasons to indulge in these guilt-free fruits, there’s more! Cranberry juice (and dried cranberry extract) has long been touted as a natural remedy for urinary tract infections, due to the ability of cranberries to coat the urinary tract with a bacterial-resistant film that prevents nasty bugs from taking hold.

So, just how many cranberries do Americans eat every year? In 2013, the per capita consumption of fresh cranberries in the United States was 0.09 lbs, while the per capita consumption of processed cranberries (including juices, sauces and dried berries) was 1.76 lbs.

The bulk of the domestic cranberry crop is grown in Wisconsin, which produced over 5 million of the 8 million barrels grown in the U.S. in 2014. Other cranberry-growing states include Massachusetts, New Jersey, Oregon and Washington, while internationally, the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec also have sizable commercial cranberry industries.

Not surprisingly, cranberry consumption peaks each year during the late fall and early winter, when the crops are harvested just in time for the holiday season. And if you’re wondering about those white cranberries, here’s the scoop – they’re just regular cranberries that haven’t yet ripened, giving them a softer texture and milder flavor than mature berries.

So this year, why not try to incorporate these homegrown superfruits into your menu throughout the seasons? Your health-conscious customers will love you for it!