Food - Drink
The Cranberry Bog Misconception You Can Stop Believing
By RYAN CASHMAN
The phrase “cranberry bog” can conjure that famous Ocean Spray commercial with two growers standing waist-deep in a lake of cranberries. However, the notion of cranberries growing in wide pools of water is a misconception because, while water plays an important role, it isn’t where cranberries actually grow.
Cranberries are perennial fruits that grow in low, vine-laced bushes, and the bog can be identified by its unique soil — a mix of sand layered with organic matter, like natural peat, or decaying leaves covered by another layer of sand. Cranberries are also well-adapted to wetlands and can thrive in flooded soils.
The part of the cranberry growing season we’re accustomed to seeing is known as wet harvesting, which is a three-day process that involves flooding the cranberry bogs with water. In this process, the fruit is allowed to float to the top, and then the berries are collected and loaded via pump or conveyor into trucks.