A cranberry celebration
Published:Sunday | October 21, 2012 | 12:00 AM
Lovelette Brooks, Lifestyle Editor
A bog experience. That and more highlighted a recent journey into the heart of Massachusetts, USA, where thousands of acres of flat land are devoted to the growing of cranberries of which both fruit and juice are consumed heavily in Jamaica.
Journalists on tour arrived in cranberry land - Frog Foot, Wareham, early Saturday morning to a nice weather, a warm welcome from Ocean Spray and cranberry festivities.
Ocean Spray has been cranberry growers since 1930.
Ahead of the festival which is the annual AD Marketplace Cranberry Harvest Celebration, now in ninth year, the scenic bog tour begins.
Enjoying a cool growing season, cranberry fruits are grown in wet, marshy areas called bogs. And these at Frog Leg are huge. It is harvest time, and large ponds of the magenta fruit confronts us.
"We are standing on over 2,000 acres," senior vice-president, agricultural business, Tim Crawford, informs, adding that the farms are owned by a cooperative of 700 growers.
The marshy bogs with floating cranberries have peat at the bottom. Peat is a layer that is formed when dead plants fall to the bottom of the water and sit there year after year. There are banks around these cranberry beds and ditches where the farmers let in water to flood the fields before harvesting.
"This is the wet-harvesting method, "Richard Blair from the growers' coop explains. Prior to harvesting, the berries are corralled to the middle of the bog forming a large circle with a boom in the middle.
Harvesters stand waist high in the bog as they operate special harvesters that "scoop" the berries up in a suction-like motion off the beds. From here, the plump berries are fed into containers to be transported elsewhere for processing.
The dry-harvesting method is different and less exciting. Here the berries are hand-picked from the vines. One disappointment here, we did not get any of those pretty pink and white cranberry blossoms as the vine blooms only in spring.
The bog tour is not complete without a helicopter ride around the farm. Up, up and away as the adventurous members of the group are airlifted, giving them a panoramic view of the entire Frog Foot operations.
"Awesome! "Pretty cool", "really nice" was that experience.
Although having nothing to do with cranberries, the 'Eyes on Owls' husband and wife team offer an added attraction showcasing different varieties of the bird and had them do a few tricks.
Harvest Celebration
Mid-morning and
it's time to celebrate. Stalls of every variety are set up on the
grounds of AD Marketplace and Bostonians streamed in. The festival is
well attended and cranberry-related products are on sale - from soaps to
ice cream to candies, cookies and even miniature bogs in a cup, the
harvest revelry is in full swing.
The voluptuous red
colour of the small fruit cannot be missed as one move aound the 20-plus
stalls.
A cooking demonstration catches our
attention.
"Cranberry is good in both sweet and
savoury dishes because of its tartness, it is one of the only fruit you
can use in your main dish", is part of a presentation being given by
Lynn Tripp, food scientist at Ocean Spray.
Lynn and
her team of chefs from Johnson and Wales University have a captive
audience.
"Cranberries are a gift from nature," she
adds, and one of few super fruits with numerous health
benefits.
For the 'cranberry' kids, there are various
rides: pony, waggon, train and paddle boat on the beautiful Tihonet
Pond.
The day-long festival, which included
beer-tasting and a live band in concert, was truly a celebration of
harvest time for a community that has been one of the pioneers in the
cultivation of
cranberries.