Where To Buy Fresh Local Cranberries In Upstate New York For Thanksgiving

Your Thanksgiving table will have all of the standard dishes. Are you looking for fresh cranberries to make some cranberry sauce? Here's where to buy them in Upstate New York.

First, A Little Delicious History

Did you know that the recipe for cranberry sauce is almost as old as the United States itself? The recipe for cranberry sauce appears in the 1796 edition of The Art of Cookery by Amelia Simmons. This classic book is the first known cookbook authored by an American.

Cranberry sauce probably wasn't a main dish at the first Thanksgiving with the pilgrims.

Cranberries are not mentioned by any primary sources for the First Thanksgiving meal. The only foods mentioned are "Indian corn", wild turkey and waterfowl, and venison. The rest remains a matter of speculation among food historians.

Cranberry sauce was first offered in North America in 1912 in Hanson, Massachusetts. Canned cranberry sauce first appears on store shelves many years later in 1941.  Cranberry sauce can be used with a variety of meats, including turkey, pork, chicken, and ham.

You can read more of the history here.

Why Do We Eat Cranberry Sauce at Thanksgiving?

Americans eat more than 400 million pounds of cranberries every year, 20 percent of which are consumed during the week of Thanksgiving.

By the Civil War cranberry sauce was so ingrained as an American dish that General Ulysses S. Grant ordered cranberries served to soldiers as part of their Thanksgiving meal."

According to Martha Stewart, we love our cranberry sauce and Thanksgiving. This year make it fresh, and make it local.