Visiting a Cranberry Farm

Our county 4H extension arranged a tour of a local cranberry farm. The farm grows cranberries for Ocean Spray, and some of the fields have been growing continuously since 1921. The farm was harvesting the day we visited, and we were invited to dive in and help out.


Cranberries are harvested by flooding the field with water from a nearby creek. The ripe berries float to the surface and are scooped up by a conveyor and piled into a truck. Our job was to round up the floating berries and push them toward the farmer and conveyor. Luckily for us, it was a really warm day and although the water was cold, it wasn't bad. I found berries in my boots after!

The best part was the farmer let us have a small bag of the cranberries to take home. I made them into cranberry sauce for Thanksgiving, and maybe some jelly tarts. I found the cranberry recipe at the Ball canning site.