[Capri] Wet harvesting cranberries is one of the most iconic farming practices in America, and it all started here in Massachusetts.

It's such an interesting process.

And it proves to be a fertile ground for the pursuit of combining agriculture and tourism.

The fact that you've opened this up to the public.

[man] We enjoy showing people.

We have a lot of fun doing this, obviously.

[Capri] Though these practices are relatively new, celebrating this uniquely bitter fruit isn't.

[woman] We've been using cranberries since time and memorial here in New England.

It just is a good offset to the sweet.

[Capri] Whether it's juicing, drying, cooking or preserving, this versatile berry provides a wide variety of ways to enjoy it.

[woman] It's just a way to brighten up any meal.

This is going to be an instant hit for anybody that tries it.

I'm Capri Cafaro and I'm on a mission to uncover the incredible stories of the foods we grow... ...harvest, create... ...and celebrate.

Beautiful, amazing meal.

So, I'm traveling America's backroads to learn our cherished food traditions from those who make them possible... Look at that.

...and are helping keep them alive.

There is so much more to learn.

[man] It's just a tradition here in this area.

-[gunshot] -[woman] Mmm hmm.

[Capri] On "America the Bountiful."

[announcer] America's farmers have nourished us for generations, but today they face unprecedented challenges.

American Farmland Trust works with farmers to help save the land that sustains us.

Together we can work to keep America bountiful.

[Capri] The cranberry is one of only three native North American fruits grown commercially in the U.S. today.

And the people of Massachusetts have been growing and enjoying this tart berry for generations.

Though they've been wild harvested by indigenous people for centuries, it wasn't until the early 1800s that cranberries were cultivated for sale.

And the modern-day process of wet harvesting in bogs was invented in the 1950s here in Cape Cod.

Erin Gilmore grew up on a dairy farm in Pennsylvania and married a cranberry farmer in Massachusetts.

She and her husband Cass run Benson's Pond, a multi-generational farm near the Cape.

It is beautiful here.

If there was an image in my head of what is a cranberry bog, where do you harvest cranberries, this is what I think a lot of people think of.

Explain to me how this process works.

I mean, how do you get a fruit basically out of a giant pond.

So, I think we get to back up and dispel myth number 1, is that they don't grow in water.

We'll start there.

You'll blowing everyone's mind.

So, if we look beyond where we've got this bog here flooded with fruit floating and lifted, you will see what look like sunken lawns.

So, those are the cranberry vines as they are 99 percent of the year.

They are growing in low-lying areas.

They certainly do have access to a lot of water, but they themselves are not growing in water.

We manage that water with canals and ditches around the perimeter of the bog.

And then harvest is when we apply water in such volume because the cranberries themselves float.

Their natural ability to float also has led that to being an easier and more efficient way to harvest them.

So, I know this is a family operation that has been passed down from generation to generation.

Yes, it is a family farm.

My husband's parents are second generation growers.

Carolyn and Kirby purchased this particular property 40 years ago, and so my husband Cass is the third generation and taking this on with the support of his parents, and we're excited to continue growing.

-All in the family.

-Yes.

Who's the end user?

Who actually-- Where do these cranberries go?

We're part of a local grower cooperative that's got a national reach.

So, a majority of the fruit is wet harvested and that goes to the receiving station like, 10 minutes down the road for Craisins, juice, other products that most folks are used to seeing throughout the grocery store.

And then a small but still meaningful portion we dry harvest and we've got some local caterers, local bakers and local farm stands that market our fruit for us as well.

[Capri] Well, it's wonderful that you can keep things local, but also have that national reach.

It's a really fun dynamic.

Part of our harvest experience is inviting folks and guests in small groups to join us and participate and just kind of share the knowledge with them.

So, how do you get the cranberries to get off the vine and float?

So, we drive around with special machines that essentially assist the cranberries from being released from the vine.

So, they're mature, they're ready to go, they just need a little assistance.

And then once they're released from the vine, they have little air pockets in them that will allow them to float.

It works.

-There you go.

-Oh my gosh.

These really are little air pockets.

I had no idea.

It totally makes sense how these things float.

[Cass] The next process will be corralling it into a central location.

We'll pump the fruit off and we'll remove all these cranberry leaves and just debris that's on the farm.

So, that clean fruit going into the truck off to the receiving station.

And this is actually perfect because as a cranberry grower, I want that nice, red cranberry color and that's what we have today.

And the quality is amazing.

And the fact that you've opened this up to the public to get people to be able to experience it like me is just a great way to diversify the business model, but also educate the public which is so important.

[Cass] Yeah.

We enjoy showing a lot of people.

[Erin] We have a lot of fun doing this obviously.

We wanted to thank you guys for joining with us.

We really appreciate it.

We love all the enthusiasm when we're out in the bogs, the questions.

It's a lot of fun for us sharing the family farm.

Enjoy.

[Capri] Thank you so much for including me in this unbelievable harvest dinner.

I mean, you grow up with something like this, here it is.

I mean, you have this beautiful property.

You have 50 acres of bogs.

It's such interesting process.

It's got to be a labor of love, but a responsibility as well.

Yes.

Your father had grown cranberries too, right?

That's right.

My father and my grandfather.

So, Cass was growing up in it too and now he's taking it over.

Listen, this is the first time since 1978 I haven't been involved in harvest.

No kidding.

Yes.

I'm very happy I'm retired.

[Capri] With four decades of experience running this farm with her husband Kirby, before turning it over to their son, Caroline Gilmore knows a thing or two about cultivating and cooking with cranberries.

Massachusetts is known for its cranberries.

What makes this state and its land so good for growing and harvesting cranberries?

Well, right here in southeastern Massachusetts we have peat soils that are high acidic soils and they're high organic matter.

Basically, nothing else grows that well on peat, but cranberries enjoy that.

There are a lot of cranberries here.

I know that there are different methods of actually harvesting the cranberries.

And this contraception here looks like it can do just that.

What is this?

This is a cranberry scoop.

It's heavy.

Yeah.

It's the original type of cranberry harvester after harvesting by hand with your fingers.

So, these are like fingers and they're curved.

We rock it along the bog.

That wet bog, is what we associate with growing and harvesting cranberries now because that's what been so prevalent over the last 50 plus years.

But this is the way it was done for-- Originally, yeah.

Exactly, for decades and generations and centuries.

Do you still use this regularly, yourself?

Oh, I always use it to get my own cranberries, and cranberries I want to ship to friends and family.

And it's gentle on the cranberries.

These are the cranberries that you use for making cranberry sauce and whenever you want to make in your own kitchen.

Okay, so that, that makes sense.

Could you show me how you use this?

So, you move along on your knees and just keep rocking this and go forward bit by bit.

You make it look so easy.

So, can I give it a shot?

Absolutely.

This is amazing.

Wow!

I didn't expect this to actually bring up so many cranberries.

Actually, not as hard as I thought it would, but you know what, this is a little bit heavy.

But you could be doing this all for eight hours.

That's true.

I mean, instead of eight seconds.

These cranberries are absolutely beautiful.

They're shiny.

They have great color.

Perfect, perfect, perfect.

But what happens now?

Where do they go next?

Well, first we put them in boxes.

We take them off the bog.

We take them to the screen house where we put them in a hopper and they bounce down seven bounce boards until they're the quality cranberries we want.

[Capri] Oh, wow!

[Caroline] This is our cranberry screening room.

[Capri] What is this thing?

[Caroline] This is a cranberry separator.

[Capri] How old is it?

[Caroline] About a hundred years old.

[Capri] Wow!

I mean, and it still works today.

[Caroline] Right.

[Capri]How does this thing actually work?

You put the cranberries in the top, in the hopper.

And they have to bounce down seven times and once they do that, they come out the grates here into the boxes.

If they're too small, they'll fall through the grate there.

If they bounce a couple times, they'll go down to the middle bin here.

Oh, I see.

There's more bins down there.

Yeah, and then if they don't bounce, they'll drop all the way down to this last bin and those are the ones that get composted.

All the ones out there are sellable cranberries.

Usable.

And then the ones in the front are really small and they go for special applications.

Like what?

Well, okay, somebody who likes to make scones and doesn't want to chop up the cranberries, they're very small but they're perfect.

[Capri] So, we're going to be making whole cranberry sauce today.

[Caroline] Yes.

These are the dry harvested ones and they're bouncy.

So, they must be good, right?

-Right.

-What are we making?

We're just making whole cranberry sauce.

Just the basic cranberry recipe.

This recipe is tasty.

It just has three ingredients, and it's good for you and it's colorful.

What kind of ingredients do we have here?

Beautiful, bright, red cranberries, sugar and orange juice.

That's it.

How do we actually turn this into a sauce?

I'm going to take two cups of cranberries and I'm going to rinse them off.

Bring it over to the stove, I'm going to dump these into the pot.

Okay.

A half a cup to three quarters of a cup of sugar depending what you want.

If you want it tarter or a little sweeter.

That makes sense.

And orange juice for flavor.

And that's it.

Light the stove.

It's going to take about five to eight minutes.

Eventually the air pockets inside the cranberries will heat up and cause the berries to pop, and they'll start popping and cooking away.

So, what kind of consistency are you looking for for this type of whole berry sauce?

[Caroline] Kind of a jelly consistency.

[Capri] Cranberries naturally contain pectin, a soluble fiber that works as a thickening agent, allowing cranberries to setup like a jelly during cooking.

So, you can see it's already starting to get juicy.

It's getting brighter.

[Caroline] Right.

That's done.

So, we're going to take it off the flame, throw a little bit of orange liqueur in.

I bet that brings out-- Because you have orange juice in there too, right?

So, that orange liqueur is going to bring out that orange taste.

[Caroline] Right.

Now, how long have you been making this recipe?

Oh, I don't know, maybe 30 years or more.

Yeah, it's just a way to brighten up any meal.

There we go.

[Capri] All right.

This is going to be good.

[Caroline] Yes.

-Fresh from the bogs.

-Fresh from the bogs.

Can't get any better than that.

Oh.

Mmmm.

I can see how this can brighten up absolutely any dish.

Mmm-hmm.

Look at these beautiful colors.

Mmm.

You get the tart.

I can feel it at the back of my mouth.

But it's still sweet.

That orange is coming through.

The texture, the soft jelly texture, is a nice complement to all kinds of food.

You obviously have an incredible product here that you've been harvesting.

It has to really make you proud to see that family tradition continue generation after generation.

Yes, it realty defines our family.

We're delighted that it's continuing on.

It's really wonderful to be able to work off the land and work together.

A real labor of love.

[Capri] Working off the land with Mother Nature's bounty was one the defining characteristics of the indigenous peoples of North America.

Rachel Sayet is a writer and chef with Moheacan Ancestry who has written and presented on indigenous food traditions of New England.

It's my understanding that cranberries have been harvested by indigenous communities for centuries, is that right?

Yes, that's true.

We've been using cranberries since time and memorial here in New England.

And we use them dried and fresh to flavor our foods.

Why would somebody choose to use a dried versus a fresh?

In ancient times, we didn't have access to supermarkets, so everything was dried during the summer which we used during the winter months.

So, right now, we're celebrating the bounty of cranberry season, and so, we can taste that fresh cranberry.

And the cranberry is the last fruit of the season, so it has that extra special quality of being bitter.

It has the spiritual, medicinal, and health benefits.

They've been there for us, as you know, part of a gift of nature.

Plus, they're delicious, right?

It's a super food.

It's a win, win.

Tasty and healthy.

So, we're going to be making something called a Johnny Cake.

What is a Johnny Cake, for people that aren't familiar?

A Johnny Cake is a corn cake similar to a pancake but a more traditional version here amongst native peoples.

And its corn meal and water, traditionally here in New England, and a fruit.

And the Johnny Cake was made to be taken on a long journey.

So, it comes from the word "journey cakes," not our indigenous language, but that's how we look at the history here.

So, what are our steps to make this happen?

First, we will add some corn meal and hot boiling water together.

Corn meal is what we've been using here amongst the indigenous tribes for thousands of years.

It was super important to our diet and it still is.

You just want to make a stiff batter.

So, one of these bowls, we're going to put the fresh cranberries.

That burst of flavor.

And then the other one, we're going to put dry.

This is the corn meal.

I'm so excited to try these.

So, these will take a few minutes on each side.

Traditionally these would be cooked over an open flame.

I love the colors of the fresh ones.

[Rachel] They are beautiful.

Mmm, the dried cranberries are very tart.

And actually, the consistency has changed a little bit.

You know, they are a little softer.

They are a little juicier and they stand out because I feel like the corn meal is a bit of a-- it's a canvas with the flavors of the cranberry, which in this case are sweet and tart.

Exactly.

The cranberry brings out a whole 'nother layer of freshness, sweet, sour all different flavors.

Now, I am going to try the fresh.

[giggling] It's not what I expected.

Because again, I expected it to be super tart forward.

That actually isn't.

The fresh cranberries does bring out a sweetness, at least to me.

What do you think?

Yes, definitely.

I find that cooking cranberries in any form brings out that sweetness.

Yeah, I expected them to be a lot more tart, and it's changing the color of the cornmeal as well to a little bit more of a red color.

It's great.

Thank you.

[native phrase] I can see why somebody would want to take this on a journey with them, it's a lot better road food than something you can get on a drive thru right.

Exactly.

So, I know you have some ideas for how to use Johnny Cakes outside of just eating them on their own.

Yeah, they're a platform for other ingredients.

You can add different things to them.

So, I actually created a Johnny Cake sandwich.

[Capri] That sounds good.

[Rachel] Turkey sandwich.

[Capri] All right, so what do we have?

We have a double cranberry.

So, we have the cranberry Johnny Cake and then we have an indigenous cranberry relish, it's from a first Nations purveyor who makes different types of jams, cranberry preserves.

Then we have some turkey breasts, some dandelion greens and a cheese.

Not an indigenous ingredient, but it's optional.

So, there's some cheddar cheese to give that nice contrast between-- Little tang.

[Rachel] Right.

The salty cheese and the sour cranberry.

[Capri] This is going to be such a good, tasty treat.

Mmm.

Cranberry on cranberry makes a difference.

That cinnamon in the preserves amping up the fresh cranberries and the turkey with-- And you're right, the cheddar, that little tang makes all the difference.

Thank you.

I was excited to create this recipe.

Definitely something that I'm going to make at home.

Making from home is the specialty of Debbie Greiner who runs Cape Cod Cranberry Harvest, a successful business preserving cranberries into homemade jellies, jams and chutneys.

She started 25 years ago selling a single variety at craft shows.

Now, I have 35 different flavors.

Wow.

So, what are we trying today?

So, the number one seller is cranberry pepper jelly.

I love a little sweet and savory and I love a little kick, so this sounds great.

Can I help out?

-Absolutely.

-Alrighty.

We probably have to get chopping on the jalapenos.

There you go.

Next, up cranberries?

[Debbie] Yep cranberries.

They're supposed to bounce.

[Capri] Full blast.

So, the jalapenos and the cranberries are already in the pot.

And that is some vinegar.

[Debbie] Yes, it is.

[Capri] You've got to have something to balance out that vinegar, right?

Just a little bit of sugar.

[Debbie] Just a little bit.

Just a little bit.

How long does this stay on?

For about 10 minutes.

[Capri] You know cranberries are pretty versatile, it seems.

Why are they so good to use in jams and jellies?

It's just, it goes well with so many things.

It just is a good offset to the sweet.

Yeah.

So, that's sweet and tart.

[Capri] And then 60 seconds with the pectin and now it's time to jar.

-Right.

-All right.

Oh, that smells good.

Well, while these are chilling, let's try some chutney.

Okay.

[Capri] Chutney originated in India and is probably defined in Western culture as a preserve that uses sugar and vinegar.

Chutney seems to have a lot more ingredients.

It smells unbelievable.

All right, so walk me through what's next.

So, the cranberries and the raisins.

[Capri] Oranges!

Those are oranges and then we have the green apple.

Is there a reason why it's green versus another one?

Because of the tartness.

I thought so.

Compliments those cranberries well.

Apricot.

The color is so bright.

And then the limes.

Now, the cider vinegar.

Cranberry juice and a whole bunch of spices.

It's Allspice, clove, cayenne pepper, ground cinnamon, curry powder and ginger.

Amazing.

[Debbie] And then the brown sugar.

[Capri] Lots and lots of sugar.

So now it goes on the stove.

[Capri] For how long?

[Debbie] Just about 10 minutes.

Oh, that's it.

Okay.

I know this is some of your favorite ways to have some jams, jellies, and chutneys.

So, what do we have?

We've got a block of cream cheese and the cranberry pepper jelly and crackers.

Oh, my gosh.

What do you think?

This is so good.

This is going to be an instant hit for anybody that tries it because it is that balance of sweet and savory, that little bit of kick, but it's great with the cream cheese.

Because cream cheese does have that bit of sweet and savory in it too.

So, I'm sold.

That's why it's number one.

I can see that.

I can see why.

But we have more options here.

What do we have here?

Chicken salad and rice squares with chutney.

Mmm.

I can taste all six, eight whatever the spices.

And I can taste the orange, and the cranberry comes through a little bit tart.

Mmm-hmm.

[Capri] It's fantastic.

Well, thank you.

I love it.

I love it.

I love cranberries anyway, but to have them offered in these really unique ways with fresh cranberries from down the street, you can't beat that.

It's really good.

Well, thank you very much.

I see we have one more here to try.

It looks a little bit different.

It's not as red.

This one is my absolute favorite.

White cranberry pepper garlic.

I've never seen a white cranberry.

White cranberries are harvested before they turn red.

Oh, okay.

And they taste nothing like a cranberry.

[Capri] Now you piqued my interest.

And what kind of pepper do you use in there?

[Debbie] Jalapeño.

Oh my gosh, somehow this is better than that.

The white cranberry jelly that I make kind of tastes like apple pie.

They're not tart at all.

That's what I'm tasting.

Because it has a totally different flavor.

The jalapeño comes through very differently as well with the white cranberry then it does in the traditional red cranberry.

I feel like the heat is a little bit more pronounced.

Yes.

Against the sweet.

This, I can see why this is your favorite.

And you have to like garlic.

That's a definite.

I do love some garlic and I can taste that in there too.

This is just, it was definitely well worth the trip.

You know, you have really incredible high-quality products and they just taste so good.

To think that this whole thing started at craft shows essentially over 20, 25 years ago and now you're building a global empire, right?

[Debbie] Well, people come to my house now all the time to purchase, and I think I've shipped to every single state.

Coast to coast cranberries right from Cape Cod all across the nation, and I can see why.

With a bitter natural taste, the cranberry may not rank high on many favorite fruit lists, yet with a craveable juices and dried snacks that are derived from the bulk of the harvest... ...and the way they brighten up meals or bring a tart fight to our baked goods... ...and with the endless options for preserving them in flavorful medleys... ...perhaps we should give thanks for this versatile berry the next time it's passed at our holiday table.

A truly iconic North American flavor.

But why take my word for it, when you can come experience it for yourself.

America The Bountiful... ...is waiting for you and me.

For more information visit Americathebountifulshow.com.

[announcer] America's farmers have nourished us for generations, but today they face unprecedented challenges.

American Farmland Trust works with farmers to help save the land that sustains us.

Together we can work to keep America bountiful.