By Carolyn Twesten, Weaver Street Market Produce Merchandiser; originally posted in November 2016
Cranberries. It’s that time of year when these ubiquitous red berries show up on grocers’ shelves and with our Thanksgiving meals. I never thought much about how they grow, seeing as how they generally show up in a bag or a can, and they aren’t grown in the Southeast where I reside.
This year I started to wonder: what is a cranberry “bog,” anyway? I pictured a literal swamp. It turns out that cranberries don’t grow underwater, but in low-lying fields composed of acidic, sandy-peat soils. The fields are usually close to a natural waterway, and growers flood the fields twice a year: once in December and for the duration of the winter, to insulate the plants (yes, water is a great insulator!), and again the following fall for the harvest. If you break a cranberry open you will notice that it has a small air pocket on the inside that causes the fruit to float. Cranberry growers use this to their advantage at harvest time by flooding the fields and using machinery to knock the berries off the vines. Then they can easily gather the floating berries.
Floating the berries on top of the water may actually have benefits other than making the harvest more efficient. Studies have shown that sunlight increases anthocyanin, the antioxidant phytonutrient that gives the berries their red color. Cranberries rank right up there with blueberries as far as healthy fruits go, with not only antioxidants but also anti-inflammatory bioflavonoids such as quercetin. Drinking sweetened cranberry juice won’t cut it, though. Try adding whole fresh cranberries to your favorite apple crisp recipe, or topping a spinach salad with dried cranberries. And of course, pile on the cranberry sauce this Thanksgiving!
P.S. Did you know that Ocean Spray, one of our suppliers, is a cooperative? Learn about their growers here.