Of all the fruits farmed in the United States, you can count on one hand,
how many are native to this land - cranberries are one of them.
They were both food and medicine - to Native Americans - who recognize the
cranberries' anti-inflammatory properties. They even spread it on their arrow wounds.
And today we know the humble cranberry outranks almost every fruit and
vegetable for disease fighting antioxidants. Every year one-fifth of
America's total harvest is consumed around one day: Thanksgiving. Most of that,
is cranberry sauce.
Only five percent of the nation's crop is sold as whole fresh cranberries.
But everything else we eat: the dried sweetened cranberries, the juice, the sauce -
it all starts with this peculiar little berry. And contrary to popular belief,
cranberries don't grow under water. So - how do they grow?
We're in southern New Jersey - one of America's top three cranberry states.
This region is called the Pine Barrens, and natural habitat for cranberries.
Many of the same families have farmed the berries since the mid-1800s - like the
Leigh brothers - this seventh generation cranberry farm.
Cranberries grow on low trailing vines and sunken beds called bogs. The plants are perennial,
meaning they survive year after year. Here the oldest vines are over 65 years old.
Cranberries love this sort of sandy soil, and they take a long time to grow - 16 months.
You can see here that while the berries are ripening, the buds for next
year's crop are already growing on the vine. So farmers have to carefully
nurture two seasons worth of cranberries at one time. Water is one of the most
precious resources for cranberry farmers. This 2,000 acre farm uses only a hundred
and thirty acres to grow cranberries. The rest is a series of reservoirs and watersheds.
The primary sources that is the waiting river, which runs naturally
along the farm, and we'll borrow the water during the growing season, and put it
back in when we're finished with it. We're simply holding the keys for the
following generations after harvest. So what's all this water for, if the
cranberries grow in dry land? Well, twice a year the farmers flood the bogs.
First in December for the duration of winter. This is when the plants go dormant,
and their blanket of water insulates the vines from harsh winter frost.
In the spring, the bogs are drained, and the cranberries' pink flowers bloom.
Nowadays, many farms like Lee brothers hire commercial bees to pollinate the fields.
And by mid-June, the fruit begins to grow, the berries start out green, turn white
around August, and finally, red in the fall. The funny thing about cranberries is,
they don't really sweeten as they ripen like strawberries or blueberries.
They're a naturally tart fruit, whether they're red or white,
and the color is just skin deep. See, the inside is white and it's crisp like an apple,
and inside there are four air chambers, which means that cranberries
can - float - and that brings us to the second time the bogs are flooded: for the October Harvest.
A harvester drives through to knock the berries off the vines.
Then, farmers wade into the bog, to corral the floating berries to an elevator that
sucks them up into a truck.
Nearly all the cranberry farmers in New Jersey belonged to the Ocean Spray Cooperative,
which grows over 60% of the world's cranberries. These berries will
be frozen and processed into craisins and cranberry juice.
Remember, cranberries are tart, so a lot of cranberry products have added sugar,
to make them sweet. But around Thanksgiving, you can find whole
cranberries (fresh or frozen) in the supermarket, and you can easily turn
these beauties into a killer cranberry sauce.
You can even mold the sauce, and refrigerate it for that fresh-from-a-can look,
except this stuff is a whole lot better for you - and it tastes a whole lot better too...