DID YOU KNOW?  Continuing on with a bit of cranberry history finds us in the mid-1800s when the first cranberry scoops were used to harvest the fruit.  Did you know that “Cranberry Fever” soon spread throughout eastern Massachusetts where growers began making a living from cranberries?  The Civil War years were actually good for the industry, and cranberries sold for the high price of $10-20 per 100 pound barrel. For Thanksgiving in 1864, it has been noted that General Grant’s soldiers dined on poultry and cranberries. According to Cranberry Culture in 1870, canned cranberries were manufactured during the war by using half a pound of brown sugar to each quart of cranberries.

In 1876, Abel Denison Makepeace bought 38 acres of land in Carver and began his first bog. The Wankinco Bog in Wareham was planted shortly afterward. He and other landowners began putting in more acres in town each season. With the addition of so many bogs in the region, growers felt the need for an organization that would allow them to exchange ideas and information on both cultivation and marketing. In 1888 the Cape Cod Cranberry Growers’ Association was formed and is still in operation today.