Monday, September 7, 2009

The Cranberry Conspiracy Pt. 1

No. Not the band. Haven't heard them. Oh, no. This is my own private little battle against the agents of propaganda and misinformation. This is a crusade.

Never in the history of human kind, other than possibly philosophical panderings, has there been such a campaign of untruth.

Even in the preeminent literature for the Cranberry at http://www.cranberries.org/cranberries/history.html they can't keep their information accurate.

"The cranberry, along with the blueberry and Concord grape, is one of North America's three native fruits that are commercially grown."

Not entirely accurate. Blackberries, muscadine grapes, and from everything I can dig up, the Raspberry are also commercially grown in the US.

"Cranberries are a unique fruit. They can only grow and survive under a very special combination of factors: they require an acid peat soil, an adequate fresh water supply, sand and a growing season that stretches from April to November, including a dormancy period in the winter months that provides an extended chilling period, necessary to mature fruiting buds."

What this means, in real life, is that the damn things require desperation to grow. You grow this if you are dire need of something edible at the latitudes it grows at. That's just agriculture 101.

Further on you get:

"Normally, growers do not have to replant since an undamaged cranberry vine will survive indefinitely. Some vines in Massachusetts are more than 150 years old."

See? The damn things are impossible to kill once established.

The nutritional benefits are comparatively negligible. A half cup of cranberries have 10% of the daily requirements for Vitamin C. A half cup of lemon juice is 100%.

That's the first nutritional myth dispelled...

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