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Today is National Eat a Cranberry day!![]()
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Wild cranberries are native to the Americas, growing throughout the Northeastern and central parts of the US and Canada. They were an important and abundant fruit harvested by indigenous peoples for centuries. They used the berries as a food source and ingredient in many recipes, for medicinal purposes, and, in some areas, even as a dye. ![]()
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Wild cranberries became an important item for indigenous peoples to trade with European colonists in the early days of colonization. The long lasting, healthy, and portable fruit was imperative for fur traders and explorers who would often be out on long journeys over the winter months. The colonists gave the fruit the name we all know it by today, cranberry, named for the plant’s flowering stem that resembles a sandhill crane, ‘crane-berry’. Many indigenous groups have their own names for the berry because they have their own languages and Wisconsin’s first nations are no exception. The Ho-Chunk call them Hoocake, the Menominee refer to them as Piakemenan, the Ojibwe call them Mashkiigimin, and the Potawatomi call them Bokmenen.![]()
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It’s a common misconception that cranberries grow in water, maybe because of the iconic imagery of people standing in flooded cranberry fields. The berries are actually grown on dry beds most of the year and, when it's time to harvest, because cranberries float, farmers flood the field as a quick way to separate the cranberries from their stems. This innovation began in the 1960s and is known as wet harvesting. From a distance, cranberry harvesting looks fun! ![]()
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Today, cranberries are Wisconsin’s state fruit and over 60% of the nation's cranberries are grown here. This is because Wisconsin’s geography is well-suited for growing the crop with many bogs and marshes that create the perfect growing conditions. In fact, the cranberry highway is a stretch of cranberry farms 50 miles long that you can visit. It runs from Wisconsin Rapids to Warrens, Wisconsin. ![]()
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Photo: Rob Routledge![]()
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#PhenologyUpdate #Cranberries #IndigenousPlant #WIEnviroEd #NatureIsEverywhere #NatureIsForEveryone #EveryBodyOutside
