Fresh cranberries have arrived. Perfect for freezing ready for Christmas, £2.80 for 340g, fresh from Wisconsin USA, Cranberries are grown on 21,000 acres across 20 counties in Wisconsin. The sand and peat marshes in central and northern Wisconsin create the perfect growing conditions for them.
Cranberries are one of the few Native American fruits, they have not always been called cranberries! Indigenous American people called this fruit ibimi which literally means “bitter berry”. German and Dutch settlers renamed the fruit “crane berry” because they thought the flower and vine looked like the head, neck and bill of a crane.
Cranberries grow on low running vines in marshes and sandy bogs. They need acidic peat soil, and to be near fresh water. Contrary to popular belief, while cranberries need to be near water, they do not actually grow in water. There are two primary methods to harvest cranberries: dry harvesting, and wet harvesting. In wet harvesting, the fields where the cranberries grow are flushed with water, and the growers come through with machines to dislodge the berries from their vines. The machines are nicknamed “eggbeaters”.
Once the cranberries are dislodged, they rise to the surface of the water, are collected, and taken to be processed. Wet harvesting is very efficient, but it also damages the berries more than dry harvesting. This method is only used for cranberries which are going to be processed. Our cranberries are dry harvested so they reach you in peak condition.
Our cranberries come from Ocean Spray, a farmer-owned cooperative, which gives all the profits back to it’s farmers. It is made up of over 700 growing families in North and South America. Seven out of ten cranberries that are sold in the world today come from Ocean Spray.
Not only for cranberry sauce, you can add to cocktails or champagne, delicious in cakes and muffins, add to apple crumble. We have 2 great recipes one for cranberry sauce and the other for cranberry muffins.
