Publisher's Synopsis
CRANBERRY -a slender, trailing North American shrub, growing in damp ground and bearing tart red berries. Along with blueberries and Concord grapes, cranberries are fruits unique to the North American continent. The use of cranberries as a food staple in the diets of Americans becomes more secure with each generation, but in fact they were established as a popular food long before the arrival of the Pilgrims. The Wampanoag tribe which inhabited portions of Massachusetts harvested many wild foods, especially berries such as strawberries, blueberries, elderberries, and, in the autumn, the ruby-red wild cranberries. In areas of New Jersey the Lenni-Lenape tribe of Indians called them the "bitter berry." One New Jersey chief, known as Pakimimzen ("cranberry cater"), distributed cranberries at tribal feasts and considered them a symbol of peace.
