John Josselyn, an English traveler and writer, described the colony founded by the Pilgrim Fathers and the local customs and traditions in his books. In her 1663 diary, Josselyn related that Indians and Englishmen made great use of cranberry berries (cranberry according to the Italian translation), boiling them with sugar to make a delicious sauce to go with venison. Even today on Thanksgiving Day there is no shortage of cranberry sauce on American tables, which accompanies turkey according to a centuries-old tradition passed down from family to family.
The founding fathers had learned the natural virtues of the cranberry from the peaceful tribes of Native American Indians. Native Americans called the red berries of the blueberry “ibimi” and used its fruit in different ways: they ate the berries raw or with maple syrup added, or mixed them with meat for drying. The juice from the berries was also used to dye hair, blankets and fabrics.
Shamans believed that the marsh blueberry was a sacred fruit, and in fact they used it in their propitiatory rites and attributed healing and beneficial abilities to it.
In the 17th century white settlers discovered other beneficial effects on human health. Whalers and sailors learned to use cranberries to prevent scurvy, the disease that arises from a vitamin C deficiency. From then on, anyone who ventured out to the ocean procured barrels of cranberries preserved in ice water. The first time this word was used was in 1647 by John Eliot, who in one of his letters described the characteristics of the cranberry.
Actually it was the Dutch and English settlers who gave swamp blueberries the name “crane berries,” which was intended to mean “crane berries.”
Source : The Cranberry – A fruit that never ceases to amaze(Mediserve)
