Cranberries Grown in Michigan Could Be In Your Next Can Of Ocean Spray

Sure there's Michigan blueberries and Michigan cherries, but when did Michigan become known for their cranberry produce too?

With the holiday season approaching Michiganders across the state are flocking to their nearest Meijer store to stock up on plenty of hashbrowns, sour cream, and Vernors. I myself bought 4 tubes of crescent rolls and 3 packages of cream cheese just the other day!

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Also on my shopping list: cranberries.

Michigan-based grocery chain Horrocks Farm Market is well-known for their wide selection of locally grown produce so imagine my surprise when I found a container of none other than Michigan-grown cranberries in the store's fresh produce section.

The carton read "DeGrandchamp Farms" and it's a name you'll often hear around blueberry picking season but wait, they grow cranberries too?

DeGrandchamp Farms - South Haven

According to reports at Michigan State what originally started in 1958 as a 12-acre blueberry farm,

is now one of the leading producers of blueberries in Michigan. They ventured into cranberry production in 1994...They grow over 40 acres of cranberries

Despite Wisconsin and Massachusetts leading the nation in cranberry production, the majority of DeGrandchamp Farms' cranberries,

are cleaned and shipped to Ocean Spray and can be found in any of their products.

Why Michigan?

Something I was unaware of until this afternoon: blueberries and cranberries are of the same genus, vaccinium. According to the Michigan Ag Council cranberries are grown on nearly 250 acres across the state and can be grown, "in the Upper Peninsula, lower part of the northern peninsula and Southwest Michigan."

So, it only makes sense that one of the leading blueberry producers in South Haven would also produce fantastic cranberries too.

When I think of cranberries I think of Ocean Spray commercials, cranberry bogs, and logs of canned cranberry jelly at Thanksgiving dinner. Now, I'll think of Michigan too!