Know how many cranberries it takes to make a can of sauce for Thanksgiving? Find out this and other fascinating facts about cranberries.
VIDEO TRANSCRIPT
Cranberries: Americans eat 400 million pounds of the little red berries each year, a fifth during thanksgiving week. It takes about 200 cranberries to make one can of sauce. That’s a lot of pressed berries.
Native Americans had plenty of uses for cranberries. They mashed them up for food, used them to color blankets and rugs, and turned them into medicine to treat arrow wounds.
The Pilgrims called them crane-berries, because they thought the fruit’s flower look like the head and bill of a Sandhill crane.
Cranberries grow on vines in large beds called bogs. These plants are so hearty that some are over 150 years old!
Because cranberries are loaded with vitamin c, sailors in the 1850’s brought them on sea voyages to prevent scurvy. Today many women swear by cranberry juice for preventing urinary tract infections. And research backs them up.
Cranberries have a tart taste, which is why products like dried cranberries and cranberry juice often have added sugar.
Some juices have even more sugar and calories than soda!
A berry good reason to always check those labels before you buy.