I still remember one of my classmates Lorleen, pronouncing cranberry as "craneberry". Later on the nickname "craneberry" became the part of her existence. After talking to her on phone yesterday, I remembered about relishing cranberry jam few days back. As the day commenced I started searched the history of cranberry. My searches lead me to the place of its origin, and its journey down the ages as a delicious food item. With this blog I aim to acknowledge my sweet friend Ms. Craneberry, and inform the food lovers about the interesting history of cranberry.

Well, to begin with, some Cranberry fruits are smaller in size, and others are bigger like any other fruit, but the difference lies in their botanical names. The smaller berries are known by their botanical name, vaccinium oxycoccos, which comes from Latin word vacca, meaning cow, and the larger ones have botanical name V. macrocarpon, from macro, which means large, with oval leaves.

Today, I understand that my friend was not wrong in pronouncing cranberry as craneberry because cranberry is the dwarfed version of the word “craneberry” – a tribute to my friend and to the dipping appearance of the flowers that resemble heads of cranes!

The Native Americans taught the world about the preservative power of cranberries. They were the first people to use cranberries for culinary purpose. They used it in the preparation of transportable nutrition packed power bars. These bars were known as Pemmican, and were made of dried berries and dried meats.  

Cranberry sauces first came into limelight when General Ulysses S. Grant ordered them in huge quantities for the sole purpose of serving the troops during the siege of St. Petersburg in 1864. The Ocean Spray Corporation became the first company to market the cranberry sauces way back in 1912. 

In the beginning, the French and British were not fond of Cranberry, but, the Germans loved to have it with their tarts and fruity side dishes. Don’t jump out of your seats if I say the colonists also used cranberries, but to bribe King Charles II hoping for relaxations in the Acts of Trade and Negotiations. But, it seems the King was not much impressed with the fruit, and the laws remained the same. Slowly by slowly, the Brits started loving their cranberries and it became a hot item, which was sold on strands for four shillings a jar. 

Cranberries and Thanksgiving? You may think what a crap, am I talking about? But it is not a crap if I say President Adams had a sumptuous dinner of cranberry sauce and wild Goose before he proceeded towards signing the proclamation of declaring Thanksgiving Day as a national holiday on March 23, 1798. In his diary entries, the President mentioned that the Tufts invited him "to dine upon wild Goose and Cranberry Sauce."

Hope this history of cranberry as food amuses the food lovers and my dear friend Lorleen, who, I am sure would love to thank us, for equaling her to the small precious craneberry. Oops! Cranberry.

Image credit: cookingdebauchery.com