Cranberry Fields Forever

I am sure in 1967 if the Beatles knew about cranberry bogs, the lyrics of their song, "Strawberry Fields Forever" may have been different :) It might have went something like this:


Let me take you down, 'cause I'm going to Cranberry Bogs.
Nothing is real and nothing to get hung about.
Cranberry Bogs forever.


Today we went to South Haven, Michigan for the Cranberry Harvest Festival at DeGrandchamp Farms.



Young cranberry plants, which are generally planted in June. At full growth, the plants are only about 6-8 high, but very dense. They are vine types plants, so runners off the main plant will produce more plants. Plants will produce for approximately 7 years.


Cranberry fruit
Scientific classification
Kingdom:Plantae
Division:Magnoliophyta
Class:Magnoliopsida
Order:Ericales
Family:Ericaceae
Genus:Vaccinium
Subgenus:Oxycoccus
Species: Vaccinium erythrocarpum, Vaccinium macrocarpon, Vaccinium microcarpum, Vaccinium oxycoccus





Unflooded cranberry bog.
Flooded cranberry bog.
Cranberries under the water, still attached to the plants, waiting for the wet harvest.

Wet harvest tractor. Yes, they drive this right out into the water.
Havest begins.
This is what happens after just one swipe down the bog.
Once the tractor does it's job, the bog workers have to "clean up" the edges of the bog to get the berries that the tractor can't get.

The inside of a cranberry is hollow, which makes it bouyant and helps the harvest process.
This bog is going to be dry harvested. They dry harvest part of the crop because it allows us to store the cranberries for further use (like Thanksgiving and Christmas). In this bog, they will use a machine that they walk behind to harvest the berries. This field will not be flooded.
Dry harvest machine.
Front of dry harvester.
Cranberry bog waiting for dry harvest.

Sorting and packing facility.