Harvest Time at the Cranberry Bog...

How exciting it was to watch the cranberry harvest in full swing this afternoon.  Some of you might remember that I live just a few minutes away from a gorgeous cranberry bog.  Here in Massachusetts our cranberries are usually harvested around this time of year.  The most common way to harvest cranberries is to water harvest them. The cranberry beds are flooded and the cranberry is beaten off the vine using a specialized harvester. The floating cranberries are then corralled and loaded onto trucks for delivery to where ever they go to be processed.  Wet harvested cranberries are used only for processed cranberry products like sauce and juice. Dry harvested fruit is combed from the vines using a mechanized picking machine.  There is no water  involved during this process. The dry cranberries are loaded into huge bins, washed and then packaged.

Here they are with a section of the corralled cranberries.  As you can see from my photos, I was fortunate enough to watch the wet harvest this afternoon.  I seem to always miss the dry harvest.

 Look at the size of the truck they just loaded.  That's a lot of cranberry sauce, wouldn't you say.

Take a look at how beautiful they are floating in their beds.  I had all I could do not to jump in and help.  The workers made it look so easy and fun.    I will be patient and wait to purchase my dry harvest bag of cranberries across the street at Great Brook Farm.