The story of how we got here goes back to the early 1940s when the Rhodes family started in the cranberry industry as Edgewood Bogs Cranberry Growers. At the time, Southeastern Massachusetts was a prime location for cranberry production and was responsible for the majority of the world’s cranberry supply. Over the years, Edgewood eventually became one of the top producers of Massachusetts cranberries. Still owned and operated by the Rhodes family today, Edgewood remains an innovator and a leader in the Massachusetts cranberry industry.

The Cape Cod Select brand, however, has a more recent history. Like many entrepreneurial stories, it started with a founder who was fed up with a void in the market. In 2009, Cindy Rhodes, a third-generation owner of Edgewood Bogs, found that it was almost impossible to find frozen cranberries in local supermarkets. She couldn’t understand why native cranberries weren’t available in the freezer aisle when there was such a wide selection of frozen fruits and veggies. So, yep—you guessed it—she took on the challenge and made it happen.

There were two basic goals of Cape Cod Select:
1. Provide the public with cranberries year round by putting whole fresh-frozen berries into retail packages.
2. Make them the best quality on the market by using Edgewood’s premium supply and then clean, sort, and package the product in our on-site purpose-built cleaning facility.

Rhodes combined her years of experience in the cranberry industry with a new outlook on frozen fruit and took the market by storm. Well, maybe we made that sound too easy.

To start, Cindy spent days on end driving to individual Whole Foods locations to pitch her product. At the time, each Whole Foods store had the authority to stock and sell new local products at the manager’s discretion. Many of these stores gave her product a shot and found success in it. She built a small local footprint one store at a time.

When it was time to pitch to the larger stores, she ran into a new challenge. The product quality spoke for itself but convincing the grocery store buyers that consumers wanted frozen cranberries was another story. Cranberries were just a holiday fruit, right? But Cindy knew the health benefits and versatility of the little red berries would resonate with consumers so she kept pushing. Sure enough, her determination prevailed and she was able to prove her product in the big chains.

Soon, store-by-store turned into chain-by-chain, and Cindy made her dream a reality. Today, Cape Cod Select products can be found across the United States and beyond, thanks to a little story of determination.

Rhodes still runs the company and takes pride in keeping her company humble and true to its original values. While we pursue our mission of providing cranberries for all seasons, quality, sustainability, and food safety remain top priorities.

About Our Grower, Edgewood Bogs

Cape Cod Select and Edgewood Bogs,the sole supplier for Cape Cod Select, are owned and operated by the Rhodes Family. Edgewood Bogs LLC is a fourth-generation independent cranberry grower with more than 800 acres of producing bog and associated support land in Southeastern Massachusetts, the heart of cranberry country, and the same place cranberry farming began in the early 1800s.

Edgewood Bogs is committed to producing a superior cranberry product for the U.S. and export markets. Over the past several years, more than 80% of our bogs have been renovated with hybrid vines to further insure buyers of a premium quality berry. Furthermore, implementing cutting-edge technologies allows us to be more efficient, sustainable, and environmentally friendly.

As the first United States cranberry grower to achieve GLOBALG.A.P. Certification, which at the time was known as EUREPGAP, we can assure you that our cranberries are grown to very stringent standards and follow an extensive set of compliance points. GLOBALG.A.P. is a private sector body that sets voluntary standards for the certification of agricultural products around the globe.

We adhere to strict guidelines for traceability, record keeping, production, harvest, environmental issues, and worker health and welfare. The end product is a premier-quality cranberry. Edgewood Bogs and Cape Cod Select consistently receive top scores on all audits and certifications because we believe in leading the cranberry industry in proper practice and quality products.