Milestone Cranberry Bog

In 1951, Nantucket native Tom Larrabee got a job with the Nantucket Cranberries, Inc. as a field hand.  Despite the hard work and long hours, Tom was immediately captured by the beauty of the area and the intricacies involved in tending the land.  For 15 years he worked, studied and learned about the various components and difficulties involved in a large agricultural operation on an island 24 miles out to sea.  By 1979, he was named bog manager for the Nantucket Conservation Foundation.  In 2009, Tom celebrated his 50^th year at the bogs with his son Tom, Jr. having worked side by side with him for six years. Today, the Milestone Bog is managed by Nick Larrabee, Tom Jr.'s son and Tom Sr.'s grandson as the third generation.

The cranberry, along with the blueberry and fox grape, is one of North America’s three native berries that are commercially grown. Cranberries were first used by Native Americans, who discovered the wild berry’s versatility as fabric dye and healing agent and food. By mixing mashed cranberries with trimmings of meat and melted fat, they made a survival food called pemican. They also believed in the medicinal value of the cranberry, using the berry in poultices to draw poison from wounds. Native Americans also taught early settlers, including the Pilgrims, about the properties and benefits of this unique fruit. The name “cranberry” derives from the Pilgrim name for the fruit, “craneberry,” so called because the small, pink blossoms that appear in the spring resemble the head and bill of a Sandhill crane. According to folklore, cranberries were given to the Pilgrims to be served at the first Thanksgiving meal in 1620.

Cultivation of the cranberry began around 1816, shortly after Captain Henry Hall, of Dennis, Massachusetts, noticed that the wild cranberries in his bogs grew better when sand blew over them. Hall began transplanting his cranberry vines, fencing them in, and spreading sand on them himself. When others heard of Hall’s technique, it was quickly copied and commercial cranberry farming in the US was born. Legend has it that Captain Hall also discovered the “bouncing’ method of sorting good berries from bad when he noticed that good berries bounced when dropped down a flight of stairs and bad berries did not. The discovery that cranberries have a small pocket of air inside of them also helped in revolutionizing the “wet” process of harvesting that relies on the berries to float to the surface of a flooded bog (see our section on harvesting).

Cranberries have been grown on at Milestone Cranberry Bog since 1857 and were an important part of the Island’s economy until just prior to World War II. The Nantucket Conservation Foundation’s stewardship of the Island’s only remaining commercial cranberry bog began in 1968, when Roy Larsen, Walter Beinecke, Jr., and Arthur Dean joined forces to purchase the assets of what was then known as Nantucket Cranberries and incorporated the Milestone Road Cranberry Bog’s total of nearly 1,000 acres into the holdings of the Foundation. In 1980 the Foundation decided to retain ownership of the land but lease the cranberry operations out to Northland Cranberries. The bogs were ably tended by Northland but the economics of renting the land, growing the fruit, and shipping off-island proved to be too much for the Wisconsin based company and in 1992 the Foundation went back to running the cranberry farming. Today, the Nantucket Conservation Foundation manages the vast and complex operations of the cranberry bog.

The cranberry growing tradition started in Massachusetts and is integral to this region’s history and culture. In addition to Massachusetts, the major growing areas for cranberries are New Jersey, Oregon, Washington, Wisconsin, and in the Canadian provinces of British Columbia and Quebec. Northern latitudes are increasing their cranberry production, especially in Canada where the industry is subsidized. However, at the southern end of the range, Massachusetts and New Jersey are experiencing a downturn of growing due to climate-related problems like reduced freezing days and southern pests migrating northward.

• The Pequot tribe of Cape Cod called the berry ibimi, or bitter berry.
• Sailors on long whaling voyages knew they could eat cranberries to protect themselves from scurvy — making them a cranberry counterpart to British “limeys.”
• Small pockets of air inside the berry cause the cranberry to bounce. Air also causes berries to float in water.
• The cranberry is one of three cultivated berries native to North America. The other two are fox grape and highbush blueberry.
• There are approximately 333 cranberries in a pound, 3,333 cranberries in one gallon of juice, 33,333 cranberries in a 100-pound barrel.
• In early times, cranberries were shipped to market in wooden barrels. Each barrel held 100 pounds of cranberries. Even though decades have passed since cranberries were shipped in barrels, this unit of weight remains the industry standard.
• Cranberry juice contains a chemical that blocks pathogens that cause tooth decay.
• White cranberry juice drinks are made from regular cranberries that have been harvested after the fruit are mature, but before they have attained their characteristic dark red color.
• About 95% of cranberries are processed into products such as juice, sauce, and sweetened dried cranberries. The remaining 5% is sold fresh to consumers.
• The average number of cranberries used per can of sauce is 200.
• Honeybees, a European domestic species, are often used to pollinate cranberry crops, and are in fact more valuable in the performance of this task than they are in the production of honey.
• Bumblebees are also widely used as commercial pollinators because they are hardier flyers in bad weather, adapted to larger temperature changes, and can deliver 5x the pollen per flower visit than their Honeybee counterparts.
• Beckwith, Early Black, Howes, McFarlin, Pilgrims, Searls and Stevens are amongst the many varieties of cranberries grown in North America. Early Black and Howes are the varieties of berries grown on Nantucket.
• A 12-ounce bag yields 3- cups whole or 2-1/2 cups chopped berries.
• Cranberries can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 6 weeks, or in the freezer for a year or longer.
• Cranberries are almost 90% water.
• On average, every acre of cranberry bog is supported by 4 to 10 acres of wetlands, woodlands, and uplands. This area offers refuge to a rich variety of wildlife including ospreys, herons, shorebirds, and deer.
• Cranberries are rich in fiber, vitamin C, flavonoids, phenols, and other substances that help protect against health problems like urinary tract infections, and chronic diseases like cancer and heart disease.