Illinois Harvest of the Month

Cranberries- Registered Sites Page

What’s bright red, round, tart and delicious in desserts, salads, baked goods, main entrees and in dairy recipes?

CRANBERRIES!

Featured Food Facts:

While cranberries may, or may not, have been served at the first Thanksgiving in Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1621, the Pilgrims were aware of cranberries having been introduced to them by Native Americans who had long used cranberries in their own cooking especially in the making of pemmican, a nutritious, high energy food that had a long shelf life but was also compact and traveled easily. Could this have been the first berry energy bar?

Did you know cranberries are a regional fruit with production in Wisconsin first in the country for the past twenty years? Cranberries are a seasonal fruit, growing throughout the summer months and harvested from late September through late October. The state of Wisconsin grows so many cranberries that in the fall you can drive the Cranberry Highway to see floating red berries as far as the eye can see. That sea of red can be viewed across nearly fifty miles of highway stretching through the west-central section of the state. This is one of many interesting facts about cranberries. The more you discover and share, the more impact you will have when you promote your harvest item!

Agricultural Facts:

  • Ninety-five percent of cranberries are wet harvested. The rest is dry harvested and sold as fresh fruit, according to Cranberry Marketing Committee literature.
  • Why do cranberries float? Each berry has four internal air chambers that allow it to float during wet harvesting. Even cooler than that— fresh, ripe cranberries bounce when you drop them.
  • Wisconsin’s 250 cranberry growers produce half of the world’s cranberry crop, according to the Wisconsin Cranberry Discovery Center.
  • Cranberries are low, creeping shrubs or vines up to 7 ft long and 2 to 8 inches in height. They have slender, wiry stems that are not thickly woody and have small evergreen leaves. The flowers are dark pink, with very distinct reflexed petals, leaving the style and stamens fully exposed and pointing forward.
  • White cranberries are cranberries harvested early, about a month early before they turn red. They are less tart than mature ones, and so give off a sweeter juice.

Nutrition and Food Facts:

  • Fresh cranberries are nearly 90% water, but the rest is mostly carbs and fiber.
  • Cranberries are the perfect defense against urinary tract infections.
  • Cranberries are a rich source of several vitamins and minerals:

      1. Vitamin C. Also known as ascorbic acid, vitamin C is one of the predominant antioxidants in cranberries. It is essential for the maintenance of your skin, muscles, and bone.
      2. Manganese. Found in most foods, manganese is essential for growth, metabolism, and your body’s antioxidant system.
      3. Vitamin E. A class of essential fat-soluble antioxidants.
      4. Vitamin K1. Also known as phylloquinone, vitamin K1 is essential for blood clotting.

Literature and Lore:

  • The early settlers thought that cranberry blossoms resembled the heads of cranes bending over for a sip. If you have seen pictures of cranberry plants in blossom, they do in fact look like cranes. So, they called them “crane berries”, which of course over time got shortened into the word we now use. By 1680, they were definitely referred to as “cranberries”.
  • Henry Hall, a veteran of the Revolutionary War, drained and fenced a marsh on Cape Cod and cultivated the first recorded cranberry crop. 
  • People would joke that if you visited a New England home in the 18th or early 19th century, the tablecloth on the table was held down at each and every corner by big pots of cranberry sauce that were served with anything for breakfast, anything for lunch, anything for dinner.

Spread the word and build partnerships

Don’t be a solo act. Invite your community to the table!

Promote in-house:

  • Announcements 
  • Newsletters
  • Website
  • Social media
  • Events (health fairs, open houses, garden working events, back to school, holiday activities, parents night, sporting events)
  • Meetings (PTO, wellness committee, board of directors, staff professional learning days)
  • Food tastings during events

Promote in your community:

  • Report on activities and share pictures with news sources
  • Share with community partners for their websites, social media and newsletters
  • Post fliers at public places (libraries, health centers, non-profit hospitals, garden groups, local farm hubs, farmers markets, health agencies)
  • Ask students to create and publicize local food stories – include photos or create videos    

Invite others onsite to get involved:

  • Build impact by engaging culinary arts, Future Farmers of America, botany, ecocentric and garden programs as well as your wellness committee
  • Create relationships and engage non-profit hospitals, garden groups, local farm hubs, farmers markets, health agencies and advocates
  • Find support in local culinary leaders and businesses     

Celebration Tips

Cranberries are viewed as a staple of holiday celebrations. Do you feed a Hispanic or African American population? The holiday season is very different for different cultures. If you are serving a traditional “turkey dinner prequel” just prior to the holiday break why not include different taste profiles added to traditional holiday dishes to welcome and incorporate your ethnic eaters? Adding red chili pepper to a cranberry sauce may seem odd, but when heat meets sweet a new yummy tradition can be created!

Try a fresh, regional Cranberry Sauce recipe. This recipe can become a topper for yogurt in the morning, added as an ingredient in a salad dressing on the salad bar, on top of poultry at lunchtime, and as a topper on cake or a bar for dessert!Cranberry sauce can be easily adjusted to a flavor of choice- in other words you can change it to suit your tastes and create a different flavor profile every time you make it!

Make it Your Own! Cranberry Sauce

Basic Recipe Credit: SimplyRecipes.com Time: 15-25 minutes Cooking and Prep Level: Basic

Ingredients for 2 1/4 cups total:

  • 3/4 to 1 cup sugar
  • 1 cup water or fruit juice (Pineapple, apricot nectar, apple cider, orange or pear juices are great choices!)
  • 4 cups (12-oz) fresh (or slacked, frozen if necessary) cranberries

Optional Ingredients: pecans, orange or lemon zest, chopped dried fruits, cinnamon, nutmeg, or ground red chili pepper for your Hispanic eaters, are great additions.

  1. Rinse the fresh cranberries in a colander. Pick out and discard any damaged or discolored cranberries.
  2. Heat water, or juice, with sugar in a medium saucepan on high heat and bring to a boil. Stir to dissolve the sugar. Taste for balance of flavors.
  3. Add fresh cranberries, bring to a boil. Cook the fresh berries until they burst. Lower the heat and simmer for 10 minutes, or until most of the cranberries have burst. If using frozen berries reduce cook time to 5 minutes at a boil.
  4. Once the cranberry sauce is finished you can leave it as is or add other ingredients. Don’t forget to taste the sauce for a balance of tart and sweet. If needed, adjust.If adding extra seasonings, start with a pinch of each, incorporate, and add more to your taste.
  5. Remove the pot from heat. Pour into a storage container. Let cool at room temperature for 20 minutes, then label, and chill in the refrigerator. Note that the cranberry sauce will continue to thicken as it cools. CCP: Reduce to 40 degrees within two hours.

Need it it in a larger quantity? Click here. CRANBERRY EQUIVALENTS: 12 oz = 350g = 3 cups whole = 2 1/2 cups chopped finely = 2 pints (4 cups) of sauce (less if you make a jellied sauce

Curricular Connections and Activities

Early childcare/preschool:

  • Berry Parfait activity from Growing Minds. Substitute Cranberries (dried or frozen) for the other berries. Switch cranberry bog growing facts for other berry facts. Click here to view the PDF.
  • Our Journey Westward, science lessons and activities for ages 4-8.

K-12:

  • Harvest for Healthy Kids’ lesson plans for berries. Follow this link and scroll down to berries to view the PDFs.
  • Time for Cranberries, a cranberry harvest book read by author Lisl H. Detlefsen on their family cranberry farm. Grades 2-4.
  • Lesson Plan – Ethnobotany for the Holidays, Cranberries. Grade Level/Range: 3rd – 6th grade How do you combine history, social studies, geography, and science, and wrap in a bit of holiday fun? By exploring ethnobotany! KidsGardening

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Recipes

We have many recipes for you to look through in our Recipe Index! Here you can see take-home recipes for use in the community as well as more choices for your cafeteria. We have hot and cold recipes for most foods. Be sure to use the provided icons on your menu!