By: Melanie Tran
Marked by a sea of swirling red and white orbs floating along, the cranberry harvest happens in Michigan every fall. “That’s what 150,000 pounds of cranberries looks like” says Adam Shinske, as he looks across one of the cranberry bogs being harvested by members of his highly-skilled team. Adam is a cranberry farmer and one of the co-owners of DeGrandchamp Farms, a third generation farm in South Haven, Michigan specializing in growing blueberries and cranberries.
Above: Cranberries being harvested and processed at DeGrandchamp Farms in South Haven, Michigan.
While cranberries do still grow wild in some places in the Great Lakes, most cranberries are now farmed. DeGrandchamps has 42 acres of cranberries they grow, with a majority grown to later be processed into juice, sauce, dried cranberries, and made into other value added products. Contrary to popular belief, cranberries don’t actually grow in water! The water is only used to help with harvesting in the fall when farmers flood the bogs and then use specialized equipment to loosen the cranberries from the vine. Once free from the plant, the cranberries float and are then pumped out of the water and sent on to be cleaned, sorted, and packaged.
Above: Adam Shinske, co-owner of DeGrandchamp Farms, showcasing a cranberry bog soon to be harvested.
Cranberries in Action
Cranberries contain plant compounds that have been linked to health benefits like protecting against and preventing chronic diseases like diabetes, heart disease, and cancers. Cranberries are tart and crunchy when raw, and are fun to experience at least once. “We have incorporated cranberries raw in the class for exploration and tasting, but the kids only give the BEST sour faces as a response,” said Lindsey Potter, owner of Bright Light Early Care & Education in Battle Creek, Michigan a 10 Cents a Meal grantee. The berries soften considerably when cooked, and work well when combined with other fruit for sweetness. “We have served cranberries in a variety of ways but the most favorite is a cranberry applesauce which is on our fall menu,” she says "it is a warm sauce with cooked apples, cranberries, and orange juice and they love it!”
For the 10 Cents a Meal program, Michigan-grown cranberries that are fresh, frozen, or dried and processed in Michigan can be used by grantees in meals and snacks and are an allowable use of 10 Cents a Meal funds. While the season for fresh cranberries is relatively short, drying and freezing them can extend their shelf life so they can be used throughout the year. For food program managers, “Whole dried fruit and whole dried fruit pieces credit at twice the volume served in school meal programs and CACFP” according to the USDA.
Cranberries are the Fall featured food for the 2024-2025 10 Cents a Meal program year. The featured foods “highlight products that are available and options that grantees can use during the year,” shared Cheyenne Liberti, Farm to Program Consultant with the Michigan Department of Education (MDE), the agency that administers 10 Cents a Meal. Grantees are encouraged to use the featured foods in the meals and snacks they serve and incorporate them into food and nutrition education activities. To assist with this, educational posters and resources from Cultivate Michigan– a campaign by 10 Cents a Meal partner, MSU Center for Regional Food Systems– are mailed to grantees to help them promote those foods to children and their community.
Above: The 2024-2025 featured foods for the 10 Cents a Meal program.
Cranberries are an Indigenous Food
A fruit native to Michigan, cranberries have long held a place in Indigenous people’s diets and culture in the Midwest and beyond. The vining, evergreen plant grows in marshy areas and bogs with acidic soil and produces the bright red berry known as Mashkiigimin(an) in the Ojibwe dialect of Anishinaabemowin, the language of the native Anishinaabe people made up of three tribes– the Ojibwe/Chippewa, Odawa/Ottawa, and Bodewadmi/Potawatomi.
Cranberries, and 40 other food items can be explored using the Miijim (Food) Cards that were developed in partnership between local students in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan; Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians; MSU Extension; and the Tribal Food Sovereignty Collaborative; the translations on the cards were generously provided by "Aamookwe," Amy McCoy. Each card was hand drawn by students and is accompanied by the word for the food in Anishinaabemowin and how to say it phonetically. There is also a QR code on each card that leads to more resources on that food and an audio recording of the pronunciation. These cards are a great resource for 10 Cents a Meal grantees doing food and nutrition education with the children they work with, and can serve as a way to incorporate education about Annishinabe culture.
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Farm to Early Care and Education Specialist, Melanie Tran, writes from Grand Rapids, Michigan, where she supports the 10 Cents a Meal Program through Groundwork Center for Resilient Communities, outreach and communications partner on the 10 Cents a Meal implementation team.
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