Monday, September 30, 2013

Cranberry Harvest 2013

cranberry harvest 9.28.13 richards roadside bog flooded cranberry bog with the picked berries floating and ready to be suctioned off of the bog into the waiting trucks to bring the berries to Ocean Spray.
cranberry bog berries on the vine 2013 ripe cranberries on the vine ready to be harvested

Fall has arrived. Nights have turned cool and the leaves on the trees are starting to turn brillant colors. Some trees are already losing their leaves. Apples are ready to be picked, along with pumpkins. The cranberries have turned a beautiful dark red.. That means it is cranberry harvest time for my family and other cranberry grower's.
cranberry measure and snap machine6. 9.2013empty vintage 6 quart cranberry measure and vintage hand snap machine ready for me to start picking some cranberries.  It takes 5 1/2 measures to fill a large cranberry box.  16 1/2 measure to fill a barrel that holds a 100 pounds. Years ago cranberries were hand picked off of the bogs. Can you imagine how long that must have taken and how back breaking that was.

Later..  the above 2 pieces of equipment were used to harvest the cranberry crop. Rows of pickers went in a horizontal line across the bog until the cranberries were all harvested from a bog.  Harvesting  the crop was work when you had several acres of bog to pick.
cranberry measure and snap machine1. 9.2013 hand snapped measure of cranberries
cranberry measure and snap machine5. 9.2013metal rod/teeth of the hand snap machine. The berries are stripped off the vine with the metal teeth into the scoop.
cranberry measure and snap machine2. 9.2013  cranberry measure and snap machine4. 9.2013  

Then came the larger hand scoop
cranberry scoop and box of berries large vintage wooden hand scoop and large box of berries. This larger scoop was used to harvest the berries from the bog. Still very tiring after a day of picking.
After the scoops, came machines where all the berries were picked on dry bogs.
cranberry darlington picker Darlington picker held a box on the back that the berries that were beat off the bog went up the conveyor belt and dropped into the box. The boxes were then taken off of the bog in a wheeling off rig. The box were then trucked to the plant for processing.

The bigger and heavier Western Picker. The teeth were different, and this machine the berries were stripped from the vines, went up a little elevator and dropped into bags in the back of the machine. The berries were then taken off the bog, sifted to remove vines and then boxed and put on a truck to take them to the Ocean Spray plant.

Picking Machines used on dry cranberry bogs to harvest the crop.
Cranberry 2011 MB2Western Pickers
cranberry western picker

Now we mostly flood the bogs and use a riding machine that reels on the front beat the berries off of the vine. The bog is flooded and you don't have to worry about cold, frosty nights, as the bog is covered in water. The berries have 4 hollow chambers inside and float to the top of the surface of the water. The cranberries are then corralled with booms and then suctioned off the bog into a truck to be taken to the plant.
cranberry wet picker machine that is now used to wet harvest the cranberries. The reel on the front of the machine beats the berries off of the vine
Cranberry Harvest Gerts bog 2011Richard my brother, Richard running a wet picking machine
cranberry harvest 9.29.13 Richard on wet picker
The inside of a cranberry has 4 hollow chambers with tiny seeds, because the berries are hollow they float to the surface of the water after they are knocked off of the vine.
cranberry harvest 9.29.13 chambers of berry and seeds close up of inside of a cranberry and it's tiny seeds

cranberry wet harvest 9.2013
cranberry harvest corralled berries 9.20.2012corralled berries
 cranberry harvest 9.28.13 getting berries off of richards bog2
Cranberry harvest 10.1.12 berries suctioned off of bog farm2 suctioning the berries off of the bog into the truck
Cranberry harvest has come a long way. It is still hard work with long days, 7 days a week until all the bogs are picked, but so much easier than 100 years ago.
cranberry harvest 9.28.13 cocoa and bellz picked berries Bella patting Cocoa's tail. Cocoa is Kelly's dog.
cranberry harvest 9.28.13 cocoa and bellz eye to eyeBella was afraid of Cocoa until and then she loved him and was petting and hugging him all afternoon.
cranberry harvest 9.28.13 kelly bellz on rock    Saturday 9/28/13 was a beautiful, warm and sunny day. My niece, Kelly and granddaughter, Bella sitting on a large rock watching the cranberry harvest.
cranberry harvest cloud reflection on water 9.2013corralled berries and cloud reflection on the water of the bog
cranberry harvest 9.28.13 frog in ditch frog in the bog ditch 

These are just a few of my harvest photos. I hope you enjoyed them. I will most likely share more photos as the cranberry harvest continues. I have more cranberry photos with info on my picture trail site.cranberry bog album
also another website for you to view
history of cranberries and how they grown

Elaine

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Beautiful pictures of the harvest Aunty! I am going to show the kids.
Love,
Amy

Joanne Huffman said...

I love how you explain the cranberry harvest and have photos. It's very interesting. Thanks.

Barbara said...

Neat Elaine, always count on you for a virtual cranberry harvest! :)