Cranberry Sauce

The first English settlers to the new world called this bright berry a “craneberry,” due to its flowers that resemble the head of a crane.    Native Americans already knew about the berry’s health-promoting properties and oftmixed it with pemmican, a dried meat mix, to preserve it for eating during the long New England winters. Cranberry sauce gained in popularity after General Ulysses S. Grant ordered it served to his troops during the siege of Petersburg, Virginia during the Civil War, and in 1912 it became available commercially under the name “Ocean Spray.”