Cranberry Harvest

[BEHR655]

On Saturday 10/14, Teegate, his daughter Jessica and I were invited to the Lee Brothers farm by Steve Lee to try our hand at harvesting cranberries. We arrived around 9:00 at the bogs on Rt563 where we were greeted by Steve Lee. He explained to us the process and then we put on our hip waders and entered the bogs. I had a leak in my waders and Jesse's were not high enough so he got us some chest waders. We each took turns pushing the berries to the box and raking the berries into the box. The box is the apparatus you will see in the foreground of the shots below. The berries are sucked into a huge machine where they are rinsed off and conveyed into awaiting trucks. It was a fantastic day and a great experience.

Guy pushing berries.

Jesse and I in the background.

Steve

 

[Teegate]

It was a great experience!

It is interesting to note that when the bogs are flooded all of the insects and animals are still in there. Many of the bugs, especially spiders, just climb onto of the cranberries with their eggs and young on their back and stay there. As we pushed our way through they would scatter around trying to avoid us. One frog was hopping across the berries, and one person there felt something slither under his food. Maybe a snake or turtle.

And in the fourth photo notice the rope railing. Just to the right of it and only one foot wide is the walkway that crosses the channel. If you don't watch your step your will fall in over your head. This also applies if you get too close to the edges of the bogs when pushing.


Jessica and Steve

Guy

 

[Badfish740]

Wow, very cool pics! I'm going to the harvest festival either Saturday or Sunday, I don't know yet. I'd like to make it to cleanup day too, so we'll see.

 

[onehand]

you old berry pickers you !! if i was there i would have eaten all their profits ! yum ! yum !

 

[Teegate]

Onehand...these are the large cranberries that are used by Ocean Spray for their Craisins.

http://www.oceanspray.com/prod_craisins.asp

Guy

 

[Teegate]

Here is a video Jessica took. You can see Steve on the right with the rake, and I am in the far distance. I have edited it because it was shaky when she zoomed in on me.

Guy

 

[bobpbx]

Great experience you all had! Good photos too.

 

[woodjin]

Cool!! There are few things a visually stunning as the fall cranberry harvest. The width of those rakes is about 15' huh? Guy, those deep canals along the perimeter are where the big pickerel are

Jeff

 

[this_is_nascar]

Awesome pics. It looks like a good time for all.

 

[Teegate]

Cool!! There are few things a visually stunning as the fall cranberry harvest. The width of those rakes is about 15' huh? Guy, those deep canals along the perimeter are where the big pickerel are

Jeff

The raking is the hardest part. And maybe it was a fish that someone stepped on and not a snake.


Guy

 

[BEHR655]

The raking is the hardest part.

Guy

I was surprised that the raking was hardest. The reason is that at the outer areas the berries are only about an inch thick in the water. At the box, after they've been pushed there, they are about 6 inches thick in the water. In the box I would imagine that they are about a foot thick. It's like when you rake a pile of leaves and you try to move the whole pile with one rake sweep. LOL.
Only once, when they tightened the boom (the floating ring that corals the berries), was it hard to push the berries to the box.

Steve

 

[Teegate]

It was on Action News tonight. The reporter was working the maching that removes the cranberries. I did not see it, my brother did.

Guy

 

[BEHR655]

Boy, Steve can get free labor out of anyone. LOL