My Visit to a Cranberry Harvest

OK, I know you can’t sew an adventure. But there are two recipes and an appropriate quilt block after the adventure. To visit the others, see the list at the bottom of the page.

Picture of Cranberry Plants
A Cranberry Vine. Cranberries are like pachysandra – they grow by sending out runners. Some cranberries are dry picked. Those are the whole cranberries you buy in bags.
Beating the Bog for Cranberrries
This is a picture of a cranberry bog that has been flooded with water for wet picking. The harvester is beating the water to release the berries from the vine. They float to the top and are vacuumed into a truck. Here is a video showing that process.
Dump Truck with Cranberries
Here’s the truck being raised so it can dump its load of berries. The trucks line up as far as the eye can see. When they get in place, the whole truck is raised and the load is dumped. Here is a video.
Hopper of Cranberries
The berries go into a hopper for cleaning and sorting.
Cleaning the cranberries outside
Vines and trash are removed outside. Frogs and turtles that were accidentally caught are rescued and released. Whew!
cleaning the cranberries inside
The berries are on their way into the plant to be cleaned and sorted by size and weight.
Cranberry Plant Sorting Process
The sorting process inside the plant. Shake, shake, shake! I got yelled at here for slipping a barrier and going in to take a picture. I didn’t realize I had done it, and I couldn’t hear them yelling because of the noise. That ended my tour of the cranberry plant.

Here is a cranberry bread recipe:

  • 2 cups flour
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 3/4 cup orange juice
  • 1 tablespoon grated orange peel
  • 2 tablespoons butter
  • 1 egg, well beaten
  • 1 1/2 cups whole cranberries, coarsely chopped
  • 1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
cranberry bread

Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Grease a 9 x 5-inch loaf pan.

Mix together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and baking soda in a medium mixing bowl.

Stir in orange juice, orange peel, butter, and egg. Mix until well blended.

Stir in cranberries and nuts. Spread evenly in a loaf pan.

Bake for 55 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Cool on a rack for 15 minutes. Remove from pan. Eat hot with ice cream.

My Favorite Alcoholic Beverage: Ruby Sunrise

I am not a big drinker. But this is a nice one to have when you are relaxing outside.

  • 3/4 cup Ruby Red Grapefruit Juice
  • 1/4 cup Coconut Rum
  • 1 oz grenadine (to taste)
  • Mint and/or whole cranberries as a garnish
  • Pour over ice and enjoy.
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23 thoughts on “My Visit to a Cranberry Harvest”

  1. The cranberry bread looks delicious, and while there is a dry cranberry bog in my neighbourhood, you have provided me with a new insight with the info about a wet one. Thanks

  3. Thank you for the cranberry info, I kinda wondered how that all happened. Your bread looks delish!

  12. You were right! I loved hearing about a cranberry harvest – thankfully you were saved along with the frogs and the turtles. No snakes??? Thank you for the recipes, too. They sound delicious.

  16. I would love to see this process in person; it looks really interesting! I grew up on a farm, so I’ve experienced haying and harvesting grains. Thanks for sharing.

  17. Very interesting pictures of cranberry harvest! The cranberry bread looks great, but I am eager to try the Ruby Sunrise. Sounds delicious! Thanks for sharing!

  21. Wonderful info about Cranberry farming. I lived in central NJ for 50 plus years where they grow and process cranberrys commercially and I never knew this stuff. Thanks for sharing, also thanks for the recipe for the cranberry bread.

  22. I love playing with cranberries. Bread, muffins, cream scones. My great grandmother that raised me, her family had cranberry bogs in Oregon on the coast, they were one of the first white settlers in the area.

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