If you're from the U.S. or Canada, the word 'cranberries' likely brings to mind Thanksgiving dinner and the purple-red jellied mass that comes out of a can and is served with your turkey. (Looks weird, but still tastes like cranberries if you can get past that texture...) Or perhaps the first thing that pops into your head is the Ocean Spray commercials with two guys wearing overall waders standing waist-deep in a flood of red and pink berries being silly and trying to convince you to drink some sort of cran-fruit juice. Or maybe you just think .... Craisins! Which are way better than raisins, in my opinion.
Cranberries are a big thing in Massachusetts. It's the second largest producer of cranberries in the U.S., which is saying something since almost all cranberry farming takes place in the U.S. and Canada. Eastern Massachusetts, especially the area south of Boston towards where the arm of Cape Cod extends off into the Atlantic Ocean, is dotted with cranberry bogs.
For most of the year, the bogs look sort of strange. They are clear, open spaces in an otherwise very woodsy part of the country. They typically have ditches bordering them, and the tangled mess of shrubs that are the cranberry plants often have a pinkish hue when viewed from a distance. You can actually see the pink from the air too; keep your forehead glued to your window next time to you fly in to Logan Airport in Boston!
But then there's harvest season. Harvest season is awesome. In autumn, when the berries are ready, the bogs are flooded. The ripe berries float, so the bogs become liquid swirls of pink, red, and white berries. Some towns hold cranberry festivals, and many of the berry farmers open their operations to tourists who are curious about the cranberry-harvesting process. They'll let visitors wander around the bogs and they'll talk through the various pieces of equipment and harvesting process. But why just watch when you can do?
Cranberries are a big thing in Massachusetts. It's the second largest producer of cranberries in the U.S., which is saying something since almost all cranberry farming takes place in the U.S. and Canada. Eastern Massachusetts, especially the area south of Boston towards where the arm of Cape Cod extends off into the Atlantic Ocean, is dotted with cranberry bogs.
For most of the year, the bogs look sort of strange. They are clear, open spaces in an otherwise very woodsy part of the country. They typically have ditches bordering them, and the tangled mess of shrubs that are the cranberry plants often have a pinkish hue when viewed from a distance. You can actually see the pink from the air too; keep your forehead glued to your window next time to you fly in to Logan Airport in Boston!
But then there's harvest season. Harvest season is awesome. In autumn, when the berries are ready, the bogs are flooded. The ripe berries float, so the bogs become liquid swirls of pink, red, and white berries. Some towns hold cranberry festivals, and many of the berry farmers open their operations to tourists who are curious about the cranberry-harvesting process. They'll let visitors wander around the bogs and they'll talk through the various pieces of equipment and harvesting process. But why just watch when you can do?
