Cranberries are a common part of holiday celebrations, whether they’re used as garland decorating a Christmas tree or in the holiday meal. One of the few native North American fruits, New York State was once the third largest producer in the nation.
Cranberries are known to provide plenty of health benefits, including preventing harmful bacteria from wreaking havoc on the body. They have long been known to prevent urinary tract infections, which was commonly attributed to the juice’s acidity.
Recent research by Rutgers University found that certain compounds in cranberry juice prevent infection by not allowing some bacteria to stick to urinary tract walls.
Additional research may have implications for stomach ulcers, gum disease, plus ear and respiratory infections.
Cranberries also contain powerful antioxidants that slow or prevent oxidative stress caused by free radicals in our bodies, preventing harmful diseases such as cancer, heart disease and age-related, neurodegenerative diseases.
Research by Cornell University reported that cranberries ranked highest in total anti-oxidant activity compared to 10 other commonly-eaten fruits, including apple, red grape, strawberry, peach, lemon, pear, banana, orange, grapefruit and pineapple.
You can reap the benefits of cranberries from many products, including sauce, dried fruit mixes, juice, baked goods and cereals.
During Thanksgiving week alone, Americans consume approximately 80 million pounds of cranberries. Only about 5 percent of cranberries produced in the US are sold fresh however, with about 95 percent juiced.
Long Island’s “Red Gold”
American cranberry (Vaccinium macrocarpon) is part of the larger genus Vaccinium, which also includes several species of blueberries, and the lesser known farkleberry, deerberry and foxberry.
They are low-growing, woody shrubs with glossy, medium evergreen foliage that forms a dense ground cover. Plants produce pink flowers in spring followed by small, green berries that ripen to dark red in September or October.
In the wild, plants are found growing in sunny areas of moist sphagnum bogs. Cranberries requirement for well-drained, organic and acidic (4.0-5.5 pH) soil and consistent soil moisture.
Historically, New York was one of the top cranberry-producing states in the country, with the industry concentrated on eastern Long Island.
In the 1870s, the acidic sandy soil glacial lowlands and abundant fresh water provided perfect conditions. By the early 1900s, Suffolk County supported nearly 36 commercial bogs, making Long Island the third-largest cranberry producer in the United States.
The Long Island cranberry industry struggled mid-century due to heavy competition from Massachusetts and New Jersey and a lack of modern flash-freezing and processing infrastructure.
The final blow came on “Cranberry Black Monday” in November 1959, when a federal cancer scare involving the herbicide amino triazole decimated national sales.
Commercial farming on Long Island ended in 1976 with the end of harvesting at the the Davis Bog in Manorville.
The Cranberry Industry Today
Today, the commercial cranberry industry has moved to Wisconsin and Massachusetts, which now lead the nation in cranberry production.
Cranberries grown for fresh use are harvested dry using equipment similar to a comb that rakes the berries from the plants. Those grown for the processing industry are wet-harvested by flooding the fields with 8-10 inches of water.
A machine with a beater is then driven through the field to remove the berries from the plants. Berries float to the water’s surface and are then corralled to one corner of the field where they are collected and loaded into a waiting truck.
The industry in New York is now limited to just one major company, located in St. Lawrence County. Deer River Cranberries come from 80 acres across 15 artificial bogs on the Davis family farm in Brasher Falls.
New York’s sole full-scale commercial cranberry farm, they produce about a million pounds of berries each October using the wet-harvesting method.
Rather than selling strictly to massive national cooperatives like Ocean Spray, they also sell to regional craft beverage producers like Nine Pin Cider Works in Albany.
Visit An Old Cranberry Bog
The 165-acre Cranberry Bog Nature Preserve in Suffolk County, Long Island, includes the remains of the abandoned Woodhull commercial cranberry bog off Lake Avenue in Riverhead, NY.
Visitors can take a quick, flat, and self-guided 1.1-mile loop trail hike around Sweezy Pond, a shallow lake formed in the late 1800s to flood the original bogs. The park is free and open daily from 7 am until 6 pm.
A version of this essay by Nebraska Extension Educator Sarah Browning first appeared in Cornell Cooperative Extension of Warren County‘s latest newsletter Warren County Connection. John Warren contributed to this essay.
Read More About Native New York Fruit
Illustrations, from above: Maine cranberry harvesters (courtesy Agricultural Marketing Resource Center); a cranberry bush in a partially flooded Washington State cranberry bog (photo by Keith Weller, courtesy USDA); a Long Island cranberry bog (courtesy Peconic Land Trust); and wet harvesting cranberries at Deer River Cranberries in Brasher Falls, NY (courtesy Nine Pin Cider Works).
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