What's Up With Cranberries?

I knew they hung out in bogs and stuff but that's about it. Oh, I also knew they were incredibly delicious as a juice and a vital aid in weathering a hangover. That dry crisp bite has seen me through many a rough bar aftermath...

How Cranberries Grow:
Cranberries are a fruit crop that is grown in wet, marshy areas called bogs. They grow best where there is a cool growing season and no extreme cold. Cranberry farms are mostly found in the Canadian provinces of Nova Scotia, Quebec, Ontario, and British Columbia. In the United States, they are grown in Massachusetts, New Jersey, Wisconsin, Oregon, and Washington. It is the largest fruit crop for Wisconsin.
The marshy bogs 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. The cranberry ‘beds’ have a combination of sand and this peat at the bottom. There are usually banks around these cranberry beds. There are ditches around them where the farmer can let in water from higher holding places like reservoirs.
Planting is done in April. Farmers use this time to replant beds that haven’t been growing as many cranberries as they should. The farmer will mow plants in other cranberry beds and lay the mowed cuttings on the new bed. The cranberry vines will grow from this. A tractor will pull a spreader through so that the cuttings are evenly laid out. A mechanical planter will follow the spreader and pushes the cuttings into the ground. The bed will be ready to harvest in about 4-5 years.
In the spring, the vines are green. Buds will grow on the woody stems. The buds look like small, red-green twists of shiny leaves. These are called uprights because they grow upward.
Farmers watch out for frost that can ruin the plants. Alarm systems tell the farmer when temperatures are too low. The farmer will spray the bogs with a mist of water when they think they will have frost. This mist freezes and puts off heat that keeps the plants warm. Farmers use their sprinkler systems for this.
During the spring and summer, farmers mow the areas around the banks of the bogs. They cut down anything that will shade the plants because they won’t grow so well if they don’t do this. In June, pink and white cranberry blossoms appear. Farmers hire beekeepers to bring in their bees to spread pollen. The blossoms die and green pinheads are formed. These become the berries. For the rest of the summer, the farmer watches for pests. They fertilize the plants if they need it.

In October, the plants have red berries and they are ready to pick. The farmer floods the beds one at a time. Wet harvesting is when water reels are driven through the beds. These reels churn up the water and knock the berries off of the vines. The berries float on top of the water. A boom, or a floating tube, round up the berries. You can see a boom in the picture to the right. When they are rounded up, the cranberries are put on a conveyor belt that takes them to barrels.
If the farmer chooses to dry harvest, the bogs don’t get flooded. Machines would pick the cranberries and then put them into bags. The cranberries are put on screens where the extra junk like twigs and leaves stay on the screen and the berries fall through. The cranberries are put in crates. Bruised and banged up ones become jelly or juice. The good ones are sold as whole berries.