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What's a pakimintzen? Are cranberries hollow? Do cranberries grow in trees? Do cranberries grow in water?
Cranberry is one of three native North American fruits of significant commercial value. The other two are blueberry and Concord grape.
Cranberry was named from the appearance of the bud and flower to the neck, head and bill of a crane, hence called craneberry then cranberry.
Cranberries were called sassemanesh and ibimi by the eastern native Americans, and atoqua by the Algonquin nation. Cranberry growers in Quebec sometimes name their farms "Atoka".
In New Jersey the cranberry was a symbol of peace to the Indigenous peoples and "pakimintzen" meant cranberry-eater; a very peaceable person!
The first commercial cranberry bed was planted on Cape Cod in Dennis, Massachusetts in 1816 by Henry Hall, a Revolutionary War veteran. The Hall family still grows cranberries, but not where Henry grew them.
Henry Hall's cranberry bed is still in production after 174 years. Cranberry beds can be very long-lived: 100 year-old fields are not uncommon.
Cannon and cannonballs for the US Constitution were made from "bog iron" smelted out of kettle bogs in southeastern Massachusetts. These bogs, which are found in the town of Wareham, MA, were then planted to cranberry vines and are still under cultivation today.
Cranberries are grown commercially in nearly a dozen states. Wisconsin and Massachusetts account for about 80% of US production.
The United States produces approximately 85% of the world's cranberry supply; Canada produces 15%. A small but growing supply is now available from Chile.
Cranberry production in the United States amounted to 639 million pounds in 1999. Canada produced approximately 96 million pounds. There are about 500 cranberries in each pound.
Cranberries are produced in beds. These beds are called marshes in Wisconsin and bogs everywhere else.
Cranberries CANNOT LIVE IN WATER. Beds are dry during the growing season! Cranberry beds are flooded for harvest and for winter protection where the winters are severe. A small percentage of beds are harvested dry, primarily in Massachusetts (approx. 15% of MA acreage), specifically for fresh market.
Although all cranberries were once harvested by hand, growers now use mechanical harvesters for both dry and water picking. The machines used in dry picking "comb" the berries into burlap bags. The machines used in water harvest "knock" the berries off the vine in about one two two feet of water. Cranberries have 4 interior compartments filled with air, thus they float. The berries are "corralled" by floating booms and pumped or conveyed out of the flooded bed into trucks.
Ninety-five percent of all cranberries are used to make juice. The other 5 percent goes into sauces, fresh fruit sales, sweetened dried and the baking trade (chopped, diced, etc., for muffins, cakes, etc.).
Scientific name: Vaccinium macrocarpon Ericaceae Ait.: a member of the heath family.
Horticultural description: The American Cranberry is a low-growing, vining, woody perennial shrub with small, alternate, oval leaves. The plant produces trailing stems or runners up to six feet long. The leaves, glossy-green in summer, turn dark red during the dormant season, which is approximately November through April. Short vertical branches two to eight inches tall, called uprights, grow from buds on the runners and produce both vegetative and fruit buds. Each fruit bud may contain as many as seven flowers.
The cranberry root system is fine and fibrous. The roots absorb most of their nutrients through a symbiotic relationship with mycorrhizal fungi. Cranberry roots are found to penetrate soil to a depth of no greater than approximately five inches and lab studies have shown root growth to a depth of ten inches.
After emerging from dormancy in May, the vines begin to develop new leaves followed by flowers. Flowering in typically begins mid-June and lasts from three to six weeks. Berries reach maturity approximately 80 days after full bloom and are harvested from early September through early November, depending on season and variety. The American Cranberry is native to North America and is found in natural bogs from Minnesota to Newfoundland and south to Illinois, Ohio, Tennessee, and Virginia.
The main cranberry-producing regions are Oregon, Washington, Wisconsin, Massachusetts, New Jersey, British Columbia and Quebec. There are also small acreages of commercial cranberries in Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Maine, Ontario, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. Additionally, cranberries are now grown commercially in Chile. Production figures from the United States in 1999 are listed below.
The American Cranberry
Re: The American Cranberry
Can't you see all those little berries bouncing around the court? 
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