That beautiful red berry known as cranberry has a long history. The Wampanoag in southern Massachusetts enjoyed the annual harvest of sasumuneash, wild cranberries, for 12,000 years. They ate berries fresh, and dried them to make foods such as pemmican, a mix of berries, animal fat and dried meats. Considered a very healthful dish, it could last for months. Medicine men used cranberries in traditional healing rituals to fight fever, swelling and even seasickness. English settlers in New England were not surprised to find sasumuneash. They knew about European cranberries which grew in the boggy areas of southern England and the low-lying land of the Netherlands. They gave the name cranberry to their new found fruit because the flower resembled the head of a Sandhill crane. So successful was the cultivation and growing of cranberries that by 1816 the first commercial cultivation began in Massachusetts. By 1871 the first cranberry growers’ association was established. Cranberries were bei...