James E. McGreevey
Governor

William D. Watley
Secretary of Commerce

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Karen Wolfe - 609.292.2523

WHERE DO THOSE HOLIDAY CRANBERRIES
COME FROM ANYWAY?

Trenton, N.J. (October 7, 2003)—Ever wonder where those little red berries that give festive color and great taste on holiday tables come from? If you visit Chatsworth in New Jersey’s Pinelands during the annual two-day Cranberry Festival, October 18 and 19, 2003, you’ll not only learn where and how they get from the bogs to the table, but also get to sample some delightfully good recipes that feature them.

“The 20th Annual Cranberry Festival highlights New Jersey’s vast agricultural heritage. In fact, New Jersey’s cranberry harvest is the 3rd largest in the United States,” says Nancy Byrne, executive director of the New Jersey Office of Travel & Tourism. “ What better way to celebrate autumn than by observing these unique harvest festivities.”

There are many exhibits and activities planned, including a cranberry recipe contest, more than 160 arts, crafts and antique booths, an antique and classic auto show and continuous music by the Bullzeye Band. The White Horse Café will serve up “everything cranberry,” from jams and breads to cranberry ice cream.

Of course, cranberries are not only colorful, they’re good for you, according to the Rutgers Blueberry & Cranberry Research Center, also in Chatsworth. High in vitamin C and anti-oxidants, they are no longer limited to juice and canned jelly, but now are dried and packaged in cereals, muffin and pancake mixes and many other dishes.

Native Americans mixed cranberries with deer meat to make pemmican, a convenience food that could be kept for a long time. Medicine men used them as poultices to draw poison from arrow wounds, and women used the juice as a dye for cloth. In New Jersey, the Delaware Indians used them as peace symbols. They got their name, “crane berries,” from the early German and Dutch settlers who thought their blossoms resembled the neck and head of a crane.

When Cranberry grower Elizabeth Lee of New Egypt decided to boil some damaged berries instead of throwing them away, she liked the tasty jelly so much she started a business selling "Bog Sweet Cranberry Sauce." That was the beginning of the Ocean Spray company, which still operates in New Jersey today!

More history, fun facts, recipes and, yes, cranberries, can be acquired at the festival. The official festival website www.cranfest.org lists activities, directions and nearby lodging. Contact 609-726-9237 or 732-389-1999 for further information. Admission to the festival is free.

For information on fall tourism activities, contact the New Jersey Office of Travel & Tourism at 609-292-2470 or check the website at www.visitnj.org