MULLICA TOWNSHIP — A narrow, sandy trail in Weekstown named Cranberry Court leads to the home of Ann and Bill Fox, the only continuously operating cranberry growers left in Atlantic County.
Their family has owned 22 acres of bogs for more than 50 years. In that half-century, they have watched many farmers leave the industry and let their plots be retaken by the surrounding forest.
That day will come, eventually, to Fox’s Cranberry Bog. Everything from ravenous Canada geese to rising pest-control costs to an increasingly competitive market has made the farm a burden on its 66-year-old operators.
“I put out fliers this year for people to come pick their own cranberries,” Ann Fox said, “and nobody came.”
When the last berry is sold, it will mark the end of an industry in Atlantic County and continue a trend of New Jersey losing cranberry growers, yet still increasing overall cranberry production.
http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/...cle_4c86ea52-0f26-11e1-aaec-001cc4c03286.html
Their family has owned 22 acres of bogs for more than 50 years. In that half-century, they have watched many farmers leave the industry and let their plots be retaken by the surrounding forest.
That day will come, eventually, to Fox’s Cranberry Bog. Everything from ravenous Canada geese to rising pest-control costs to an increasingly competitive market has made the farm a burden on its 66-year-old operators.
“I put out fliers this year for people to come pick their own cranberries,” Ann Fox said, “and nobody came.”
When the last berry is sold, it will mark the end of an industry in Atlantic County and continue a trend of New Jersey losing cranberry growers, yet still increasing overall cranberry production.
http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/...cle_4c86ea52-0f26-11e1-aaec-001cc4c03286.html
