Berry - Teeming With Health

Cranberries can be described as a group of evergreen dwarf shrubs or trailing vines, going up to 2 metres in length.

- Jhuma Biswas

Their height ranges between 5 to 20 centimetres. They belong to the subgenus Oxycoccus of the genus Vaccinium. These shrubs have slender stems and evergreen leaves, and they do bear edible and delicious fruits. The fruits of the shrub or vine are also known as cranberry.

The fruit is initially light green in colour and it becomes red when ripe. The cranberry fruit is a berry. The cranberries are characterised by their acidic taste, which becomes apparent despite their sweetness.

The US is the largest producer of cranberries in the world, followed by Canada, Chile, Belarus and Azerbaijan respectively. During 2017, according to FAOSTAT, 97 percent of the global production of cranberries was accounted by the US, Canada and Chile only. Among the US states, Wisconsin is the leading producer of cranberries, accounting 65 percent of the country’s annual cranberry production. Quebec in Canada is another major producer of cranberry in the continent of North America.

Cranberries are also used as a major commercial crop in Massachusetts, New Jersey, Oregon, Washington in the US and in some Canadian provinces such as British Columbia, New Brunswick, Ontario, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland.

The cranberries are native to North America. In North America, native Americans were the first to discover the edible use of cranberries. They mixed mashed cranberries with deer meat to make a dish called pemmicana. They also used the cranberry for medical purposes. They used cranberry in poultices to bring out the poison from arrow wounds.

But despite its several applications, strangely, until the 19th century, cranberries weren’t farmed on a large scale. According to a website, in 1816, the first recorded yield of cranberries was harvested in Massachusetts, the US. Presently in North America, more than 100 varieties of cranberries grow. By 1820s cranberries were being shipped to Europe.