Wisconsin may be the Dairy State and most famous for our cows and cheese, but we probably should be known as the Cranberry State.
Folks think of Massachusetts and other states out east when they think of cranberries, but it's actually a billion dollar industry in Wisconsin, where we produce more than 60% of the cranberries grown in the United States. The US produces nearly three-quarters of all the cranberries in the world, meaning Wisconsin's harvest is pretty darn important.
First called crane-berries because their flower resembles a sandhill crane, cranberries have been an important part of the North American diet since the earliest Native Americans lived here. They're harvested in the fall, so you can understand how they became such an integral part of our autumn meals.
The cranberry is perennial, but susceptible to weather conditions, so the bogs are actually flooded again after the harvest to put a frozen layer over the vines to help protect them through the winter.
Cranberries grow in conditions that many other fruits can't survive in - acidic soil without many nutrients. They're hardy enough to survive even in low temperatures.
Since cranberries floating in a bog is the picture we're used to seeing, most people believe that cranberries grow in water. But this is actually what almost-ripe cranberries look like when they're about ready to be harvested.
It takes about 440 cranberries to make up a pound and about 4,400 cranberries to make a gallon of juice, meaning there are massive fields of cranberries needed to supply the country - and the world. In Wisconsin, cranberries are grown on about 21,000 acres in 20 counties.
With the millions of tiny berries planted across all those acres, farmers had to find a way to easily harvest them. Cranberries float, so they flood the fields and use different equipment to detach the berry from the vine.
About 5% of the harvest is taken for fresh cranberries. Those are harvested more gently to keep them intact and gorgeous. The rest of the harvest goes into jams, jellies, juices and more, and those can be harvested a bit more aggressively.
Once the cranberries have been separated from their vine and are floating in the bog, workers get right on in and help corral the harvest.
A floating boom is used to gather the cranberries to one side and then conveyors are use to bring the berries into trucks.
It's a process that's virtually unchanged in the past 50 years or so and it's unique to cranberries, making it all the more interesting to watch.
But even these pictures don't do the harvest its due. Check out the video to see a cranberry harvest like you've never seen before.
Who knew cranberries were such an important part of Wisconsin's history and industry?
Have you ever visited a cranberry farm? Or maybe taken part in Warrens' Cranberry Festival every fall?
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