Fresh The Fresh from the Farm featured fruit is from the Cranberry Farm for educators Exploring Canberries: Healthy Kids Do Better Taste Testing in School What you will need: Family wellness impacts children at ■ Dried cranberries school and home. ■ Cranberry sauce Recommended Daily Research shows ■ Cranberry juice Amounts of Fruits that children of ■ Fresh cranberries and Vegetables* families who eat ■ Napkins and paper plates together several Ages 5 - 12 Ages 13 & older times a week do ■ Copies of Nutrition Facts labels for dried cranberries, cranberry 2 ½ - 5 cups 3 ½ - 6 ½ cups better in school. Encourage students per day per day and parents to cook and eat healthy juice, cranberry sauce, and fresh meals and snacks, and be physically cranberries. *Active people should eat the higher number of cups per day. active together. Fresh from the Farm Activity: focuses on helping students and ■ Give each student ¼ cup of each Visit www.mypyramid.gov to learn more. their families develop healthy habits. type of cranberry. ■ Explore differences in colors, Cooking in Class: textures, shapes, smells, and tastes for each product. Nutrition Facts Trail Mix Serving size 1/2 Cup Fresh (55g) ■ Record observations in a sensory Ingredients: chart. Amount per serving ■ 2 cups dried cranberries ■ Compare calories, vitamin C, and Calories 30 Calories from Fat 0g ■ 1 cup each of two unsweetened fiber content using the Nutrition % Daily Value breakfast cereals (suggestions: Facts labels. (Download Nutrition Total Fat 0g 0% Cheerios, Chex, or Kix cereals) Facts from www.nutritiondata.com) Saturated Fat 0g 0% ■ 1 cup pretzels ■ Record observations. Trans Fat 0g ■ ¾ cup sunflower seeds Cholesterol 0mg 0% ■ Report observations to class and Mix together in a large bowl. Serve discuss similarities and differences. Sodium 0mg 0% Total Carbohydrate 6g 2% each student ¼ cup in paper cup. ■ Survey class to determine which is (Check for seed allergies before Dietary Fiber 2g 15% the favorite. Have students create adding sunflower seeds.) Sugars 2g a graph to show the results, and Protein 0g share with school nutrition staff. Manganese 4% Vitamin K 3% Just the Facts Vitamin C 11% ■ The cranberry was first used by Native Americans, who used the wild berry Source: www.nutritiondata.com for food, fabric dye and as a healing agent. ■ The Pilgrims named the fruit “craneberry” because of its small, pink blossoms that appear in the spring and resemble the head and bill of a Sandhill crane. Craneberry gradually became cranberry. ■ Cranberry cultivation by European immigrants began in 1816 when Captain Henry Hall of Dennis, MA transplanted cranberry vines, fenced them in, and amended the soil for better production. ■ American whalers and mariners carried cranberries on board their ships to help prevent scurvy from developing in crew members. Sources: Cape Cod Cranberry Growers’ Association at www.cranberries.org; Wisconsin Cranberry Growers Association at www.wiscran.org How Do Cranberries Grow? What’s in a Name? Cranberries can grow only under specific conditions. They Pronunciation: Kran-ber-ee require acid peat soil, adequate fresh water, sand, and an Family: Ericaceae April-September growing season. They must have winter Genus: Vaccinium months that provide an extended cooling period so that the Species: macrocarpon plants can grow dormant and develop mature fruiting buds. The cranberry is a low-growing, woody vine with small, oval Cranberries grow in bog beds that are layered with sand, leaves. The plant’s stem runs along the ground with runners peat, gravel and clay. These bogs were originally made that are two to six feet long. Short branches shoot off from by glacier deposits. buds on the vines. These branches produce fruit buds. Native Americans and Each fruit bud may contain as many as seven flowers, European settlers which can become berries. The cranberry is a perennial harvested cranberries and an undamaged cranberry vine can survive indefinitely. by hand for centuries. Of all popular fruits, only three, the blueberry, the Concord Today cranberries are grape, and the cranberry, are native to North America. harvested using Cranberries are sold fresh, but most are sweetened and mechanical pickers dried or made into juice or sauce. Fresh cranberries have and water reels. an acidic taste, so sweetener is added for most recipes Wet harvesting involves flooding a dry bog and using and cranberry products. The sugar or other sweetener water reels to drive through the water and loosen the adds calories. berries from the vines (see above photo). Floating berries are loaded into trucks. Dry harvesting uses a The table below compares calorie content in typical machine with metal teeth to comb the berries off the servings for the most common cranberry products. vine and collect them in burlap sacks. 1 cup fresh or frozen cranberries 60 calories 8 oz. 100% cranberry juice 140 calories What are Phytochemicals? 1 oz. dried cranberries 130 calories Anthocyanins, compounds that give cranberries their ½ cup cranberry sauce 209 calories red color, are powerful phytochemicals. Laboratory studies have shown that cranberry extract reduces oxidation of LDL-cholesterol (so-called “bad” cholesterol), an effect which research indicates may Student Sleuths be important in maintaining a healthy heart. ■ Phytochemicals (also known as phytonutrients) ■ Search for recipes with cranberries are naturally-occurring compounds found in plants. and list the various ways that Plants develop these chemicals to protect cranberries are prepared and eaten. themselves, but now research has found that these ■ Cranberries require very specific growing chemicals also have protective factors for humans. conditions. Find the top cranberry-producing ■ Foods that contain phytochemicals are also counties in Minnesota and Wisconsin. Discuss described as “functional” because they provide more why these counties lead cranberry production. than just nutrients. ■ Research and report on how Native Americans ■ Phytochemicals function as antioxidants, promote used cranberries. immunity, increase communication with cells in the ■ Discuss the medicinal properties of cranberries in body, and help repair damage to DNA. history and today. ■ Phytochemicals are grouped by their possible ■ Learn about bogs. What conditions create a bog? protective function and biochemical characteristics. What unique plant and animal species live in They are classified as: carotenoids, phenolics, bogs? Where are the closest bogs to your school? alkaloids, nitrogen-containing compounds, and Sources: www.wiscran.org, www.cranberries.org, organosulfur compounds. www.nass.usda.gov/statistics-by-State ■ More than 2,000 phytochemicals are plant pigments and contribute to the variety of colorful fruits and Smart Choices is funded by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of vegetables. These include lycopene (red), anthocya- Minnesota through its Prevention Minnesota Initiative and the nins (red, blue/purple), phenolics (blue/purple), lutein Minnesota Department of Health's Statewide Health (green), indoles (green or white and from the crucifer Improvement Program (SHIP). family), beta carotene (orange), bioflavonoids Permission to use and adapt this material was received from the (orange/yellow), and allacin/allium (mostly white California Department of Health, Network for a Healthy California. members of the onion family). Original development funded by the USDA Supplemental Nutrition For more information, visit:www.pbhfoundation.org Assistance Program (formerly the Food Stamp Program). http://chnr.ucdavis.edu/content/Fact%20sheets/2009/phytochemical These institutions are equal opportunity providers and employers. Physical Activity Corner Cafeteria Connections Children need at least 60 minutes of physical activity daily total – it can come in smaller chunks throughout the day. Team up with your school nutrition staff to develop Do this two-minute exercise break with students to keep a lunch recipe that features Fresh From the Farm their minds sharp and increase cardio/respiratory produce items. Ask students to design ads that endurance. market the new recipe to students and teachers. Equipment: Activity: ■ 4 cones ■ Research the health benefits of eating cranberries. ■ Stopwatch (or wristwatch with a second hand) ■ Conduct market research and determine: Activity: 1. Who is your audience? 2. What do you need to know about your audience ■ Set up four stations in a square shape, placing cones in to help pitch your product to them? the corners. 3. How can you get this information? ■ Make signs to post at each station: 1 Run in place ■ Develop a poster or magazine ad(s) that includes 2 Squat up and down nutrition information. 3 Regular/modified pushups (modified = on knees) ■ Display the ads in the cafeteria. 4 Jump up and down Adapted from: www.kidsgardening.com ■ Divide students into four groups: - Send each group to a different cone. Adventurous Activities - Give them 30 seconds to complete each activity as The Cranberry Bounce Test fast as they can. - After 30 seconds, move clockwise to next cone by Problem: Will cranberries bounce if dropped from a fixed skipping, tiptoeing, taking giant steps, or running. position? Hypothesis: Fresh, undamaged cranberries will bounce; Literature Links the others will not. Elementary: Materials: 20 whole cranberries for each team, ruler, flat ■ Cranberry Thanksgiving by Harry Devlin, surface such as a desk or table top, 6” cardboard square, (Aladdin Books, 1990) pencils, 2 small open containers and labels. ■ Cranberries: