WEBVTT - Cranberries 0:00:01.320 --> 0:00:04.240 Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:13.920 of iHeartRadio. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Holly 0:00:14.040 --> 0:00:17.640 Frye and I'm Tracy V. Wilson. This is a time 0:00:17.680 --> 0:00:20.440 of year when it's popular for people to argue about food, 0:00:20.560 --> 0:00:25.200 one of my least favorite activities. I'm laughing. I'm laughing 0:00:25.200 --> 0:00:28.080 because it's always time to argue about food, but they're 0:00:28.120 --> 0:00:30.840 specific foods this time of year that are the subject 0:00:30.840 --> 0:00:33.880 of arguments. Yeah, I hate it. We can talk about 0:00:33.920 --> 0:00:37.000 that behind the scenes on Friday, but I sure hate 0:00:37.040 --> 0:00:40.879 the food arguments anyway. A lot of the talk that 0:00:40.920 --> 0:00:43.280 pops up around the holidays is about what kind of 0:00:43.320 --> 0:00:46.400 cranberry sauce people have at Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners and 0:00:46.760 --> 0:00:50.479 other holiday feasts. If you have them, we'll talk about why. 0:00:50.520 --> 0:00:53.680 I hate that entire argument. But it reminded me that 0:00:53.720 --> 0:00:55.880 I actually put Cranberry's on my list a while back, 0:00:56.160 --> 0:00:58.680 and then I kind of spaced out about them. They 0:00:58.680 --> 0:01:02.280 got on my list because one of my BFFs is 0:01:02.280 --> 0:01:04.600 a cranberry girl. I call her Cranberry Queen. She may 0:01:04.640 --> 0:01:07.560 or may not have cranberry tattoos, and I love her, 0:01:08.160 --> 0:01:10.280 and so I feel like a jerk for sitting on 0:01:10.280 --> 0:01:12.080 this topic for so long after I put it on 0:01:12.120 --> 0:01:14.319 my list. But we're going to talk about cranberries today 0:01:14.760 --> 0:01:17.760 in their history. This is a largely North American episode. 0:01:18.040 --> 0:01:22.920 Heads up, because cranberries are native to North America, the 0:01:22.959 --> 0:01:27.000 cranberries we eat there are other cranberries not as popular 0:01:27.080 --> 0:01:30.720 for eating, So, as Holly just said, the cranberries we 0:01:30.800 --> 0:01:34.399 typically eat today are native to North America grown in 0:01:34.440 --> 0:01:38.920 other places. Today, an estimated ninety eight percent of all 0:01:38.959 --> 0:01:41.800 the cranberries are grown in the US and Canada, with 0:01:41.880 --> 0:01:45.679 the US producing about four hundred thousand tons of the fruit. 0:01:46.640 --> 0:01:49.040 Canada comes in at a little less than half of that. 0:01:50.040 --> 0:01:53.080 Those statistics make this kind of obvious, but there's a 0:01:53.200 --> 0:01:56.520 very clear belt across the northern United States and into 0:01:56.560 --> 0:02:02.040 Canada that has the best conditions for growing cranberry's. Wisconsin 0:02:02.280 --> 0:02:04.840 produces more than half of the cranberry is grown in 0:02:04.840 --> 0:02:09.359 the US, which, as a Massachusetts resident, surprised me a bit. 0:02:09.440 --> 0:02:13.720 Massachusetts actually comes in second. Both of those states claim 0:02:13.800 --> 0:02:17.560 the cranberry as their state fruit or berry. I can 0:02:17.600 --> 0:02:21.800 explain why that happens. Yeah, Massachusetts is a lot smaller. 0:02:21.880 --> 0:02:24.720 I think if you did a density of cranberry production, 0:02:24.919 --> 0:02:28.880 Massachusetts would probably be the number one, And I would 0:02:28.960 --> 0:02:32.520 say that there is a lot of cranberry marketing in 0:02:32.560 --> 0:02:36.120 New England Wisconsin also, Actually I could not say about 0:02:36.120 --> 0:02:38.359 Wisconsin because I've only visited there a couple times that 0:02:38.520 --> 0:02:42.079 it was years ago. Yeah, super popular in both places, 0:02:42.320 --> 0:02:43.840 but I think it really just comes down to the 0:02:43.880 --> 0:02:47.880 fact that Massachusetts is a much smaller state. Cranberries, you 0:02:47.919 --> 0:02:50.839 may or may not know, actually grow on vines. Those 0:02:50.919 --> 0:02:53.520 vines can grow as long as six feet and they 0:02:53.560 --> 0:02:55.920 have kind of these stolens that grow up from the 0:02:56.000 --> 0:02:58.600 vine that carry the flowers and ultimately the berries. So 0:02:58.880 --> 0:03:01.720 the vine crawls along then and then there are these 0:03:01.800 --> 0:03:04.040 kind of pieces that grow up from the ground into 0:03:04.080 --> 0:03:06.560 the air, and that's where all of the action happens. 0:03:07.040 --> 0:03:10.160 These vines are classified as perennial shrubs, and it actually 0:03:10.200 --> 0:03:13.280 takes several years for a vine to mature to the 0:03:13.280 --> 0:03:15.320 point that it bears fruit. If you're used to other 0:03:15.400 --> 0:03:19.880 kinds of vining plants like squashes, this may be surprising 0:03:19.880 --> 0:03:22.720 because they have like one season, But these guys are 0:03:23.000 --> 0:03:26.680 long lived because once a vine does start to bear fruit, 0:03:27.040 --> 0:03:31.040 it will bear fruit for years. Well cared for vines 0:03:31.120 --> 0:03:33.520 last more than one hundred years. There are a number 0:03:33.600 --> 0:03:37.240 of cranberry producers that say that they have vines that 0:03:37.240 --> 0:03:40.880 are one hundred and fifty years old or more. And 0:03:40.920 --> 0:03:44.880 then cranberries, once the fruit is ready in the autumn, 0:03:45.080 --> 0:03:47.960 are harvested in two different ways. They can be picked 0:03:48.000 --> 0:03:51.280 off the vine dry, but the much more common method 0:03:51.360 --> 0:03:54.880 uses bog flooding. This has actually led to some confusion 0:03:55.040 --> 0:03:57.640 as I was doing research. Every time I went to 0:03:57.680 --> 0:04:01.160 like a cranberry producer's website, they were like, no, cranberries 0:04:01.200 --> 0:04:03.880 don't grow underwater. So clearly a lot of people think this. 0:04:05.480 --> 0:04:08.840 Cranberries do not grow in the water. They just do not. 0:04:09.320 --> 0:04:11.960 So if you thought that, it's because you see the 0:04:11.960 --> 0:04:15.080 bogs filled with water. And that's because in bog flooding, 0:04:15.400 --> 0:04:19.159 the night before the harvest, growers pump in big farms 0:04:19.160 --> 0:04:20.960 about a foot and a half of water into their 0:04:21.000 --> 0:04:24.200 bogs and let it set overnight. Smaller producers may put 0:04:24.320 --> 0:04:27.400 less water in, but the air pockets that are inside 0:04:27.440 --> 0:04:29.960 cranberries cause some of the right berries to just pop 0:04:30.040 --> 0:04:32.359 right off the vine and float to the surface on 0:04:32.400 --> 0:04:35.400 their own. But then the next day after they've sat overnight. 0:04:35.520 --> 0:04:38.159 The farmer takes a machine that's called a beater out 0:04:38.200 --> 0:04:41.120 into the bog. It has this cylindrical wheel across the 0:04:41.120 --> 0:04:43.720 front that beats the water and it combs through the 0:04:43.800 --> 0:04:47.560 vines to pull the remaining berries off. Once all of 0:04:47.560 --> 0:04:50.279 the berries have been floated, they are then corralled. They're 0:04:50.360 --> 0:04:52.600 usually like these big straps that go around them to 0:04:52.680 --> 0:04:57.120 keep them all together, and then they are shoveled onto 0:04:57.160 --> 0:05:00.279 belts or lifts that carry them upward and then dump 0:05:00.320 --> 0:05:02.279 them into a truck so that they can be carried 0:05:02.279 --> 0:05:05.200 to a processing plant. There they will be washed and 0:05:05.240 --> 0:05:09.000 prepped for the consumer market or food service supply, or 0:05:09.240 --> 0:05:12.040 they then go to an additional processing center or even 0:05:12.120 --> 0:05:15.400 within that same center to be canned or used for juice. 0:05:16.040 --> 0:05:19.880 The wet method is faster and it costs less. It 0:05:19.920 --> 0:05:23.039 requires about a quarter the number of people, and a 0:05:23.080 --> 0:05:26.040 whole bog can be harvested in less than a day, 0:05:26.839 --> 0:05:29.240 and that's why it's the most popular way to harvest them. 0:05:29.480 --> 0:05:32.520 But because it takes the whole crop of the area 0:05:32.600 --> 0:05:35.840 at once, it's likely that there are different levels of 0:05:35.960 --> 0:05:40.120 ripeness across all those berries. With dry harvesting, it is 0:05:40.200 --> 0:05:43.400 possible to pick individual berries, all of them at their 0:05:43.440 --> 0:05:49.200 peak of ripeness, although that's obviously not especially efficient. Cranberries 0:05:49.200 --> 0:05:52.719 are normally harvested from mid September to mid November, so 0:05:52.880 --> 0:05:58.000 as fresh fruit, they have a small window for consumers. Yeah, 0:05:58.000 --> 0:06:00.080 they do keep for quite a while, but in in 0:06:00.160 --> 0:06:02.880 terms of like peak of freshness, it's not that long. 0:06:04.240 --> 0:06:07.520 But the actual story of cranberries goes back way beyond 0:06:07.560 --> 0:06:11.440 recorded history. So the movements of glaciers are credited with 0:06:11.560 --> 0:06:14.640 carving out these sort of perfect areas that have a 0:06:14.680 --> 0:06:18.000 mix of sand and clay with peat and additional soil 0:06:18.080 --> 0:06:22.880 and rock debris. And this substrate, along with highly acidic 0:06:22.920 --> 0:06:27.239 soil and a high water table, creates the perfect environment 0:06:27.279 --> 0:06:32.000 for cranberry vines to thrive. Cranberry use goes back thousands 0:06:32.000 --> 0:06:34.520 of years, at least twelve thousand years that we know of. 0:06:35.120 --> 0:06:38.520 The Wampanog people reportedly started picking them that far back, 0:06:38.600 --> 0:06:43.040 both to eat and to treat ailments. And these wild cranberries, 0:06:43.120 --> 0:06:47.039 which the Wampanog called sesamunyish, were ground into a grit 0:06:47.080 --> 0:06:50.760 style food sometimes other times they were combined with dried 0:06:50.800 --> 0:06:54.200 meat and fat to make Pemmican, and that deep red 0:06:54.240 --> 0:06:56.799 color of the berries was also used by these people 0:06:56.839 --> 0:07:00.000 for dying cloth. So the cranberry is, to be clear, 0:07:00.120 --> 0:07:03.839 called other things in other areas by different Native American tribes. 0:07:04.240 --> 0:07:07.320 The Peacock called them a bimi, for example, but they 0:07:07.320 --> 0:07:09.640 were using them in very similar ways to what we 0:07:09.720 --> 0:07:14.440 described the Wampanog doing. There are also some cranberry varieties 0:07:14.480 --> 0:07:18.120 that are native to Europe, especially to around Britain and 0:07:18.160 --> 0:07:22.520 the Netherlands. So when colonists from Europe moved to North America, 0:07:22.840 --> 0:07:25.760 they were already familiar with these fruit, although they had 0:07:25.840 --> 0:07:28.960 not seen them prepared in the same way that the 0:07:28.960 --> 0:07:33.040 indigenous peoples of North America did. The colonists learned these 0:07:33.080 --> 0:07:36.720 other prep methods and also started using cranberries for juice. 0:07:37.280 --> 0:07:40.280 It's often reported that Europeans referred to the berry as 0:07:40.320 --> 0:07:43.640 a crane berry, because the flowers of the plant have 0:07:43.760 --> 0:07:48.200 a similar profile to a sandhill crane. From there, that 0:07:48.320 --> 0:07:52.200 word was eventually shortened to cranberry. Yeah, and I should 0:07:52.200 --> 0:07:55.880 say that is the story that is given for it, 0:07:56.040 --> 0:08:00.440 but maybe we don't have that well documented, and there 0:08:00.440 --> 0:08:02.480 are some arguments that it's a little bit different. In 0:08:02.520 --> 0:08:06.760 the etymology might be slightly different. The North American varieties 0:08:06.760 --> 0:08:10.360 of cranberries were already well known to European colonists and 0:08:10.440 --> 0:08:14.640 visitors to North America by the sixteen seventies. In the 0:08:14.680 --> 0:08:19.200 book New England's Rarities Discovered in Birds, Beasts, Fishes, Serpents 0:08:19.200 --> 0:08:22.040 and Plants of that Country, which was published in sixteen 0:08:22.080 --> 0:08:25.880 seventy two and then republished in the nineteenth century, writer 0:08:26.040 --> 0:08:30.000 John Jocelyn included an entry on cranberry's which read quote 0:08:30.240 --> 0:08:34.200 cranberry or bearberry, because bears use much to feed upon them. 0:08:34.640 --> 0:08:37.040 Is a small trailing plant that grows in the salt 0:08:37.080 --> 0:08:41.160 marshes that are overgrown with moss. The tender branches, which 0:08:41.160 --> 0:08:43.960 are reddish, run out in great length, lying flat on 0:08:44.000 --> 0:08:48.319 the ground, where at distances they take root, overspreading sometimes 0:08:48.400 --> 0:08:52.720 half a score about twenty acres, sometimes in small patches 0:08:52.720 --> 0:08:55.520 of about a rude a root is roughly a quarter 0:08:55.559 --> 0:08:58.600 of an acre or the like. The leaves are like 0:08:58.720 --> 0:09:03.520 box he's referring to uxis, but greener, thick, and glistening. 0:09:03.720 --> 0:09:06.439 The blossoms are very like the flowers of our English 0:09:06.520 --> 0:09:10.400 night shade, after which succeed the berries. Hanging by long 0:09:10.520 --> 0:09:14.560 small footstalks, no bigger than a hair. At first, they 0:09:14.600 --> 0:09:18.040 are of a plain yellow color, afterwards red and as 0:09:18.080 --> 0:09:22.000 big as a cherry. Some are perfectly round, others oval, 0:09:22.280 --> 0:09:25.960 all of them hollow, of a sour astringent taste. They 0:09:26.000 --> 0:09:29.640 are ripe in August and September. And his account also 0:09:29.800 --> 0:09:33.520 mentions that cranberries are good for scurvy and for curing fevers, 0:09:33.559 --> 0:09:36.160 and he mentioned something that sounds a lot like the 0:09:36.200 --> 0:09:39.640 cranberry sauce lots of people make today, noting that the 0:09:39.640 --> 0:09:43.080 indigenous people of the area quote use them much, boiling 0:09:43.160 --> 0:09:45.679 them with sugar for sauce to eat with their meat, 0:09:46.000 --> 0:09:49.080 and it is a delicate sauce, especially for roasted mutton. 0:09:49.720 --> 0:09:54.000 Some make tarts with them, as with gooseberries. Coming up, 0:09:54.040 --> 0:09:56.800 we're going to talk about an English naturalist and his 0:09:56.920 --> 0:10:10.000 experience with cranberries, but first we'll have a sponsor brain. So, 0:10:10.200 --> 0:10:12.800 as we said, this episode is largely about the life 0:10:12.880 --> 0:10:15.200 of the cranberry in the US, but it did also 0:10:15.320 --> 0:10:19.640 have developments in Europe. In seventeen sixty nine, English naturalist 0:10:19.720 --> 0:10:22.600 Sir Joseph Banks made a note in his travel diary, 0:10:22.920 --> 0:10:26.680 which was published posthumously as Journal of the right Honorable 0:10:26.760 --> 0:10:31.360 Sir Joseph Banks Bart KBPRS during Captain Cook's first voyage 0:10:31.679 --> 0:10:35.600 in HMS Endeavor in seventeen sixty eight seventy one to 0:10:35.840 --> 0:10:41.400 Terra del Fuego. That is a misspelling the Odahiti, New Zealand, Australia, 0:10:41.440 --> 0:10:45.160 the Dutch East Indies, et cetera. And he writes of them, quote, 0:10:45.200 --> 0:10:48.520 here are also great plenty of cranberries, both white and 0:10:48.600 --> 0:10:53.360 red arbutus rigida. The specific location that he saw these 0:10:53.400 --> 0:10:58.600 berries is actually a little unclear, because he references in 0:10:58.640 --> 0:11:01.360 this particular piece of writing that they are just outside 0:11:01.360 --> 0:11:05.440 of Cape Saint Vincent, that's in Portugal. But this chapter 0:11:05.520 --> 0:11:07.800 of his diary covers the time that the group was 0:11:07.840 --> 0:11:11.080 traveling from Rio de Genero to Tierra del Fuego. So 0:11:11.800 --> 0:11:14.360 it seems like he gets a little bit loosey goosey 0:11:14.440 --> 0:11:16.880 with the names of other places and bodies of water, 0:11:17.040 --> 0:11:20.559 because there are places in his journal where he qualifies 0:11:20.600 --> 0:11:23.160 things by saying he thinks the name he mentions is 0:11:23.200 --> 0:11:27.040 the correct one. So I believe he saw these cranberries 0:11:27.040 --> 0:11:30.920 in South America, not off the coast of Europe. In 0:11:31.000 --> 0:11:34.200 any case, these berries made an impression because over the 0:11:34.200 --> 0:11:37.960 next couple of decades, Banks actually had some cranberry seeds 0:11:38.080 --> 0:11:40.640 brought to Britain so that he could grow them himself, 0:11:41.559 --> 0:11:44.280 and while these were cultivated there, they were not ever 0:11:44.320 --> 0:11:47.720 intended for sale. This is because he was a botanist 0:11:47.720 --> 0:11:50.400 and naturalist, but it also might have been a little 0:11:50.440 --> 0:11:53.160 bit because while you can grow cranberries from seed, it 0:11:53.240 --> 0:11:56.679 is not the preferred method. It's very difficult to ensure 0:11:56.720 --> 0:11:59.760 their outcome because they have to be pollinated by local 0:11:59.760 --> 0:12:02.440 bees and their pollen is too heavy to be carried 0:12:02.440 --> 0:12:05.959 by the wind. And it is also unrealistic for someone 0:12:06.040 --> 0:12:09.679 to manually pollinate an entire vines worth of berries. So 0:12:10.480 --> 0:12:13.040 because bees are doing the work and it's local bees, 0:12:13.200 --> 0:12:16.520 this means it is very easy for cross pollination to happen, 0:12:16.640 --> 0:12:19.240 and that means it can lead to very different berries 0:12:19.600 --> 0:12:21.800 then the seed plant may have produced. So if you 0:12:21.840 --> 0:12:24.880 have a great cranberry vine and you're like, I'm going 0:12:24.960 --> 0:12:27.679 to take the seeds from this, don't count on having 0:12:27.679 --> 0:12:30.880 the same berries at the end of that process. Propagating 0:12:30.920 --> 0:12:35.719 through cuttings from established vines is usually the preferred method. Yeah, 0:12:35.760 --> 0:12:38.960 there are some plants that people manually pollinate today, but 0:12:39.080 --> 0:12:42.040 like not with the number of flowers you would need 0:12:42.080 --> 0:12:45.360 to pollinate as like a not at scale. Right, you 0:12:45.400 --> 0:12:48.920 could do that at your house for fun, but even 0:12:48.960 --> 0:12:52.240 then getting enough that you could make anything worthwhile might 0:12:52.280 --> 0:12:55.960 be some effort. Yeah. Even as Banks was on his 0:12:56.080 --> 0:12:59.679 voyage with cook cranberries were already popular enough in England 0:12:59.760 --> 0:13:04.560 to occasionally appear in cookbooks. In seventeen sixty nine, The 0:13:05.080 --> 0:13:09.000 Experienced English Housekeeper was written by Elizabeth Raffld, and she 0:13:09.120 --> 0:13:13.640 included information about putting up cranberries for later use. Sometimes 0:13:13.640 --> 0:13:17.240 this is described as preserving them, but you'll see there 0:13:17.280 --> 0:13:20.640 wasn't really anything in the way of preserving the berries 0:13:20.679 --> 0:13:24.559 other than just storing them properly. Quote, get your cranberries 0:13:24.600 --> 0:13:28.120 when they are quite dry, put them into dry clear bottles, 0:13:28.360 --> 0:13:30.520 cork them up close, and set them in a cool, 0:13:30.640 --> 0:13:34.320 dry place. These are generally used as a garnish, and 0:13:34.400 --> 0:13:37.199 cranberries are mentioned in other cookbooks of the era, also 0:13:37.280 --> 0:13:42.480 for that purpose. North American cookbooks also included cranberry recipes 0:13:42.520 --> 0:13:46.760 in the late eighteenth century, mostly for cranberry tarts. Yeah, 0:13:46.800 --> 0:13:50.680 their tarts were also being made in England in the 0:13:50.760 --> 0:13:54.440 nineteenth century. Queen Victoria became quite fond of cranberry tarts. 0:13:54.480 --> 0:13:58.800 Apparently about a decade after Sir Joseph Banks was working 0:13:58.800 --> 0:14:02.320 on growing cranberry in the eighteen teens, in the US, 0:14:03.160 --> 0:14:08.400 North America got its first cultivated cranberry bed versus wildly growing. 0:14:09.000 --> 0:14:12.360 This is credited to Captain Henry Hall. Hall had land 0:14:12.400 --> 0:14:15.240 on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, in the town of Dennis, and 0:14:15.360 --> 0:14:18.520 one day he noticed that he had wild cranberry vines 0:14:18.559 --> 0:14:23.240 growing there. That winter of eighteen twelve, in anticipation of 0:14:23.640 --> 0:14:27.680 particularly brutal low temperatures that had been predicted, Hall cut 0:14:27.760 --> 0:14:30.440 down a lot of trees from his land that had 0:14:30.440 --> 0:14:34.840 been growing in between his natural cranberry bog and the shoreline. 0:14:35.480 --> 0:14:39.200 Without the natural windbreak of those trees. Over the winter, 0:14:39.480 --> 0:14:42.960 sand from the shore got blown all over his cranberry bog, 0:14:43.200 --> 0:14:47.040 and Hall's initial assessment was that this had probably ruined 0:14:47.120 --> 0:14:50.360 his cranberries. But then the vines came back a few 0:14:50.360 --> 0:14:53.200 months later and they were more vigorous than ever, and 0:14:53.280 --> 0:14:57.440 these renewed vines were also naturally more resistant to pests. 0:14:58.000 --> 0:15:00.640 Hall came to the conclusion that the addition of the 0:15:00.680 --> 0:15:03.720 extra sand had actually been good for the plants, and 0:15:03.760 --> 0:15:08.120 ongoing experiments proved that out. He was starting to cultivate 0:15:08.200 --> 0:15:10.760 cranberries with the intent that they could bring in money, 0:15:10.880 --> 0:15:13.360 something that had not really been done before, and soon 0:15:13.920 --> 0:15:16.920 other people in Dennis started doing the same, as cape 0:15:16.960 --> 0:15:20.680 Cod has exceptionally good conditions for the crop. As the 0:15:20.720 --> 0:15:24.120 strongest and most productive plants were selected by Hall and 0:15:24.280 --> 0:15:28.280 others for transplanting to controlled bogs, and they continued to 0:15:28.320 --> 0:15:32.320 be tended and harvested. The prosperous plants started to set 0:15:32.360 --> 0:15:37.080 the standard for North American cranberry vines. The Vaccinium macrocarbon, 0:15:37.160 --> 0:15:40.400 a native North American variety, has become the most common 0:15:40.560 --> 0:15:43.880 and the one that's normally grown as a crop. The 0:15:43.920 --> 0:15:47.320 cranberry industry grew quickly and there was an interesting cycle 0:15:47.400 --> 0:15:51.080 to its cultivation in New England coastal areas. So we 0:15:51.200 --> 0:15:56.280 mentioned earlier that other people hundreds of years prior to 0:15:56.320 --> 0:15:59.000 this were noting that these were good for scurvy. It 0:15:59.080 --> 0:16:02.160 became common knowledge that cranberry's, which are rich and vitamin C, 0:16:02.680 --> 0:16:06.200 were very good for long voyages because they stored very 0:16:06.240 --> 0:16:10.520 easily and they could prevent scurvy. So as sailors retired 0:16:10.520 --> 0:16:13.280 from their maritime work, some of them went into the 0:16:13.280 --> 0:16:16.920 cranberry business to sell berries to the next generation of sailors, 0:16:17.520 --> 0:16:20.720 and these new commercial bogs were often financed the same 0:16:20.800 --> 0:16:24.280 way ships were, so people could purchase an interest in them, 0:16:24.600 --> 0:16:27.160 so the entrepreneur behind them could pay to get it 0:16:27.240 --> 0:16:30.560 up and running. This was how some ships worked in 0:16:30.600 --> 0:16:34.960 the Golden Age. Another aspect of cranberry industry that's also 0:16:35.040 --> 0:16:39.120 tied to the ocean started during this time shipments of 0:16:39.160 --> 0:16:44.080 cranberries being sent to Europe for sale. As Christmas trees 0:16:44.160 --> 0:16:47.080 became more and more common in the United States and Europe, 0:16:47.160 --> 0:16:49.920 it makes sense that cranberries became part of the decor 0:16:50.040 --> 0:16:54.120 for them. Cranberries could keep for weeks or sometimes even months, 0:16:54.160 --> 0:16:57.160 and they had this shiny red exterior, so that made 0:16:57.200 --> 0:17:00.600 them a natural match for the holiday season. So did 0:17:00.640 --> 0:17:04.680 the timing of the cranberry harvest. Yeah. I read one 0:17:04.800 --> 0:17:09.000 source that stated that this started in the eighteen forties, 0:17:09.040 --> 0:17:13.439 but I couldn't find any definitive information about that. It's 0:17:13.680 --> 0:17:15.680 not the kind of thing that probably got written down 0:17:15.720 --> 0:17:19.560 a lot like today we start using cranberries on our trees. 0:17:19.600 --> 0:17:22.560 I think it just happened, and maybe in somebody's journals 0:17:22.640 --> 0:17:26.159 or letters or something like the children strong cranberries to 0:17:26.240 --> 0:17:30.040 decorate the tree today. Yeah, I think the definitive part 0:17:30.080 --> 0:17:32.399 is them going this is a novel idea which I 0:17:32.480 --> 0:17:36.560 never found. Cranberry scoops, which are box like structures that 0:17:36.600 --> 0:17:39.639 had times on one side so a person could scoop 0:17:39.680 --> 0:17:41.960 through a bunch of cranberry greenery and come up with 0:17:42.200 --> 0:17:45.159 just berries in the box, were invented starting in the 0:17:45.200 --> 0:17:49.400 mid nineteenth century, and around this same time there were 0:17:49.440 --> 0:17:52.879 experiments with water harvesting, but those did not go well, 0:17:52.960 --> 0:17:57.240 and water harvesting was actually abandoned until the nineteen sixties. 0:17:58.200 --> 0:18:01.199 Over the years when dry harvesting was the only method, 0:18:01.600 --> 0:18:04.680 many different types of cranberry scoops were patented, a lot 0:18:04.680 --> 0:18:08.640 of them with various improvements on previous versions, and one 0:18:08.720 --> 0:18:12.320 man who held several patents was William T. Makepiece and 0:18:12.440 --> 0:18:14.680 remember that name because it is going to come up again. 0:18:15.560 --> 0:18:18.800 In eighteen fifty nine, a book with a somewhat confusing 0:18:18.880 --> 0:18:23.159 title situation was published about cranberry's by author B. Eastwood. 0:18:24.080 --> 0:18:26.160 The confusion lies in the fact that this book has 0:18:26.200 --> 0:18:29.640 two title pages and they have different titles, so it's 0:18:29.680 --> 0:18:32.680 sometimes cataloged by one name and sometimes by the other. 0:18:33.400 --> 0:18:36.280 The first is the Cranberry and its Culture, and the 0:18:36.320 --> 0:18:39.679 second is complete Manual for the cultivation of the cranberry 0:18:39.720 --> 0:18:44.040 with a description of the best varieties. This book was 0:18:44.080 --> 0:18:48.560 intended to educate interested readers on everything about raising cranberries, 0:18:49.600 --> 0:18:52.639 but it was not intended for the home gardener, although 0:18:52.640 --> 0:18:56.280 a home gardener could certainly benefit from the contents. As 0:18:56.359 --> 0:18:59.080 Eastwood made clear and the introduction, though this book was 0:18:59.119 --> 0:19:04.240 about business. He wrote, quote, everyone connected with agricultural pursuits 0:19:04.240 --> 0:19:07.240 in this country must be aware that there exists at 0:19:07.280 --> 0:19:13.119 present considerable anxiety respecting the best modes of cultivating the cranberry. 0:19:13.800 --> 0:19:16.679 Having been attracted to this subject, that I paid particular 0:19:16.720 --> 0:19:20.639 attention to it, with special reference to raising the berry 0:19:20.680 --> 0:19:25.199 as an article of commerce. The book contains chapters that 0:19:25.320 --> 0:19:29.359 walk the would be cranberry producer through everything from setting 0:19:29.440 --> 0:19:33.960 up a bog, to selecting plants, to troubleshooting issues to harvest, 0:19:34.760 --> 0:19:38.040 and it concludes with an entire chapter about cranberry markets 0:19:38.040 --> 0:19:41.000 in the United States and how to sell at each one. 0:19:41.840 --> 0:19:44.959 He even lays out the overhead costs that are associated 0:19:44.960 --> 0:19:48.640 with cultivation and how to price berries, buy the bushel 0:19:48.720 --> 0:19:52.320 to make a profit. Yeah, I mean like it has 0:19:52.400 --> 0:19:54.240 hard numbers in it of like this is what I 0:19:54.320 --> 0:19:56.240 paid this year to do this, So to me, I 0:19:56.280 --> 0:19:59.840 have to charge this one like it's so completely di 0:20:00.280 --> 0:20:03.960 and thorough. The Colombian Exposition of eighteen ninety three, which 0:20:04.000 --> 0:20:06.480 is something of a recurring character on the podcast at 0:20:06.480 --> 0:20:10.000 this point, featured an impressive exhibit that was mounted by 0:20:10.000 --> 0:20:14.879 the Wisconsin State Cranberry Growers Association. The group's members built 0:20:14.880 --> 0:20:18.199 a miniature cranberry bog there on the expo floor to 0:20:18.240 --> 0:20:21.320 show visitors to the expo how the berries were grown 0:20:21.400 --> 0:20:25.600 and harvested. In eighteen ninety nine, the US adopted a 0:20:25.640 --> 0:20:28.800 standard for cranberry's stating that each barrel was to be 0:20:28.880 --> 0:20:32.480 one hundred pounds. That really didn't change things a whole lot. 0:20:32.560 --> 0:20:36.160 Most growers were already loading barrels at one hundred pound mark, 0:20:36.280 --> 0:20:39.399 but it did codify the practice. All Right, it is 0:20:39.480 --> 0:20:42.640 just about time to talk about canned cranberry sauce. Right 0:20:42.800 --> 0:20:45.040 after this sponsor break, we will hear about the man 0:20:45.080 --> 0:20:48.359 who impacted the cranberry industry probably more than anyone else 0:20:48.400 --> 0:20:52.159 in history, and how he gets credit for canned cranberry sauce. 0:21:02.080 --> 0:21:04.760 If you've ever wondered who gets the credit for canned 0:21:04.800 --> 0:21:07.600 cranberry sauce, that honor, depending on your point of view, 0:21:07.680 --> 0:21:11.160 goes to Marcus L. Uran. We don't know if that's 0:21:11.200 --> 0:21:17.120 the correct pronunciation, but other variations sound unsavory. Uh, So 0:21:17.359 --> 0:21:20.359 we're going with this one in my apologies if that 0:21:20.440 --> 0:21:23.240 is your last name. Uh but I know that in 0:21:23.240 --> 0:21:26.160 a situation where we're going to say it a lot, 0:21:26.760 --> 0:21:30.400 I don't trust myself for sure to not accidentally say 0:21:30.440 --> 0:21:34.439 it the wrong way. Uh Uran was born in Sullivan, Maine, 0:21:34.480 --> 0:21:38.040 on October second, eighteen seventy three, and after his early 0:21:38.160 --> 0:21:41.280 education in the public schools of Sullivan, he attended the 0:21:41.400 --> 0:21:44.399 University of Maine to get his bachelor's degree and then 0:21:44.440 --> 0:21:48.240 went on to Boston University Law School. Uran passed the 0:21:48.280 --> 0:21:51.000 bar and started his law career. But then in nineteen 0:21:51.040 --> 0:21:54.080 oh six, on what almost seems like a whim, he 0:21:54.160 --> 0:21:57.440 decided to ditch his law practice and buy a cranberry bog. 0:21:58.800 --> 0:22:02.359 That's kind of funny to me, honestly. This was the 0:22:02.400 --> 0:22:05.879 start of a lifelong dedication to the growing of cranberries 0:22:05.960 --> 0:22:10.080 and the stewardship of all cranberry production. In the United States. 0:22:10.840 --> 0:22:15.040 In terms of modern influence, Uron probably has had more 0:22:15.080 --> 0:22:19.160 impact than anyone on the US cranberry industry, and part 0:22:19.160 --> 0:22:21.640 of that was because he was very good at organizing 0:22:21.720 --> 0:22:25.240 and working with other growers. Uron went on to organize 0:22:25.280 --> 0:22:29.200 the American Cranberry Exchange to market fresh cranberries, the first 0:22:29.200 --> 0:22:33.000 of many organizations he founded for the crop. But though 0:22:33.160 --> 0:22:35.639 he got into the cranberry business to sell them as 0:22:35.680 --> 0:22:39.720 fresh produce, Uran also, as we mentioned, is credited with 0:22:39.800 --> 0:22:43.800 inventing canned cranberry sauce. Before any listeners turn him into 0:22:43.800 --> 0:22:46.040 the villain of the piece, please know that that original 0:22:46.080 --> 0:22:48.760 canned sauce was a lot more like the homemade sauces 0:22:48.800 --> 0:22:53.080 of today. The story goes that when fresh cranberries are 0:22:53.119 --> 0:22:56.360 packaged in barrels, the ones on the bottom always sustained 0:22:56.400 --> 0:22:58.560 some damage from the weight of the berries that are 0:22:58.600 --> 0:23:01.639 piled on top of them. They end up crushed and 0:23:01.920 --> 0:23:06.040 unsuitable for sale on the produce aisle. Throwing out those 0:23:06.160 --> 0:23:11.080 crushed berries bothered Uron. It felt wasteful and like he 0:23:11.200 --> 0:23:13.800 was losing out on some of the potential sales after 0:23:13.920 --> 0:23:17.639 all of the effort that growing the cranberries required. Then 0:23:17.680 --> 0:23:20.840 he had a brainstorm, what if he cooked those berries 0:23:20.880 --> 0:23:23.840 down and made a sauce that could be canned. So 0:23:24.000 --> 0:23:26.960 that is what he did. That is the way the 0:23:27.000 --> 0:23:30.119 story is often relayed. It comes up in his obituaries, 0:23:30.359 --> 0:23:33.240 and crushed berries might have been part of the inspiration 0:23:33.400 --> 0:23:36.880 for canned cranberry sauce. But the other thing to consider 0:23:37.040 --> 0:23:40.720 was the short cranberry season. As we've mentioned, cranberries are 0:23:40.800 --> 0:23:44.320 usually harvested mid September to mid November, so as a 0:23:44.320 --> 0:23:47.760 fresh fruit, the window is kind of small for consumers. 0:23:48.400 --> 0:23:50.120 But Yuran knew that if he could find a way 0:23:50.119 --> 0:23:53.160 to can them, he could make them a year round business. 0:23:53.720 --> 0:23:57.720 In nineteen thirty, he founded the National Cranberry Association, which 0:23:57.760 --> 0:24:01.720 was a co op of growers. The NCAA eventually reorganized 0:24:01.760 --> 0:24:04.880 as Cranberry Canners. Twenty seven years later, it would change 0:24:04.880 --> 0:24:09.480