Harvest Season
Finally! After a Spring and Summer of weeding, fertilizing, weeding and weeding, the berries are finally a nice red color and ready to let go of the vines on their journey through Miss Lucy (my picking machine) and my Hayden Separator and into your homes.
After a couple years of hand picking and one year of wet picking when the vines were still fragile, I used the dry pick method exclusively through 2023. That's the only means to assure the best fresh fruit and longest keeping quality. All the berries sold at Annie's Crannies are still dry picked today. Unfortunately there are no local wholesalers who take fresh fruit anymore, so in 2024 I was forced to use the wet pick method for the balance of the crop.
Some dry picking starts just before Columbus Day Weekend to supply the Gift Shop and Wholefoods, but the wet harvesting occurs in late October to the first few days of November, mother nature and labor permitting.
To prepare for the wet harvest, the sprinkler heads are all removed and the bog is flooded. Post harvest activities include storing all the equipment and pulling the flume boards to unflood the bogs. Wholefood cranberry deliveries continue into December and the season wraps up by ordering jam/honey jars and bee supplies by the 15th and resetting the Bogside Barn for Winter the activities workspace.
Dry Pick Harvest
Cranberries harvested by the dry pick method are suitable for all baking, jams, jellies and sauces. Fresh fruit cranberries can only be picked dryto maintain the keeping quality of a fresh berry. The primary dry pickers are Furford Picker/Pruner (what I use), Darlington & Western Pickers, Gates Harrow (tractor attached), Ruby Slipper, and hand held rocker scoops.
.jpg "Anne's All Smiles As The Berries Roll In")
.jpg "Jenny Kisses")
.jpg "Dry Harvest at Annie's Crannies")
Wet Pick Harvest
Cranberries harvested by the wet pick method are only suitable for juicing and canning as there is little keeping quality. Wet pickers are commonly called "water wheels" nicknamed "eggbeaters" because of their spinning action that dislodges berries from the vines in flooded bogs which then float to the surface. Gates Harrow, a tractor attached machine, is also used for larger scale operations. In addition to the pickers, floating booms, berry pumps, suction boxes, and conveyors are used to get the berries into trucks for transport.
.jpg "Flume Scooping Up the Berries")
.jpg "Up the Flume She Goes")
.jpg "Four Hands Are Better Than Two")
.jpg "Majestic View of a Wet Pick Harvest")
2009 Arctic Blast
In November 2009, an unusual arctic cold caused the sprinklers, used to warm the vines on frost nights, to freeze solid. Ice formed around the vines which protected the berries, but significantly delayed the harvest. Fortunately, cranberry farming is a tight fraternity and a dozen farmers came to my rescue with picking machines and the helping hands that I'll be forever grateful for. While the entire crop went to "juicers", at least it wasn't a total loss.
Check out The Products
Harvest season is Gift Shop season, so if it's that time of year visit the Gift Shop for the cranberries, honey, jams, beeswax candles, soaps and more.
.jpg "Fresh Cranberries")
.jpg "Gift Boxes & Variety Packs")
