Ever wondered how Ocean Spray harvests their delicious cranberries that are ready for you just in time for Thanksgiving?
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00:00 Approximately how many cranberries would you if you can guesstimate that we're standing in right now that we're about to harvest millions
00:06 I have no idea. I would guess we probably have between
00:10 60 and 70 thousand pounds of cranberries floating on the water right now. What's going on? Everybody? It's Rome and today
00:17 We're at the cuts brothers farm to see how cranberries are harvested. Look at this. It's tractors rolling
00:23 It's people's got leave blowers. I think that's what that is and blowing cranberries is crazy
00:27 We're gonna see how these cranberries are harvested. We're gonna get in the bog. Go laugh fun stuff Sean. What's going on, dude?
00:33 Welcome. Thank you. Welcome to our cranberry farm. You can see we've got some cranberries here on the water
00:39 We'd love to give you the chance to get out into the bog and put on some waders and see what it's like to be
00:45 A cranberry farmer. I'm ready to lead the way to the waders. All right, let's go
00:49 All right
00:50 So you want to find the front of the boot and then you just want to step into it take your foot out of your
00:54 Shoes. Oh man step in. I don't got good balance and then once your feet are in pull them to the way up
01:01 Easy as that he says that
01:05 So I'm gonna take these off, all right get up in there I feel like I'm getting ready for school or kindergarten
01:14 Here we go
01:23 Ready to go I'm suited up. I feel very secure this way Rome. I'll let you do that for it
01:28 Come on, it's like I'm walking the plank and look I'm gonna step over
01:32 Whoop
01:35 Yeah, look at that. I'm getting baptized in these cranberries right here
01:39 Okay, tell me a little bit about it. What is a cranberry bog?
01:42 Cranberry bog is actually dry during the growing season and then we begin to flood it and we'll flood it just
01:49 Above the level of the vines and at that depth the berries are attached to the vine still but there's trying to float free
01:56 So if you took a cranberry and popped it open, so you've got four little air pockets right there, right?
02:02 And so that's what makes a cranberry float, which is very important to the process
02:06 So after we've flooded the bog to a certain level in order to pick it
02:11 The berries are trying to float free from the vines
02:13 And so then we take our picking machine down into the bog
02:16 The picking machine has a reel in the front that spins around and it just knocks the berries loose from the vines and then they float
02:22 To the surface of the water and so after that's done then we'll put more water into the bog
02:26 So everything can float nice and free then we gather it in with the boom
02:29 Which is what the the yellow that you see in circling us right now
02:33 so our tractors will start at the opposite end of the
02:36 Bog and drive in opposite directions and just circle the bog and then pull everything into a tight corner
02:43 Like we are standing in right now
02:45 What we'll do then is we have a big pump and we'll suck the berries in the water
02:48 Out of the bog up into the truck. They'll go up into a tank where they'll float through some fingers
02:55 It'll grab grass and just all this little debris. Yeah, and you have a little debris that's in the bog
03:00 and then they'll they'll tumble down some some grates and
03:04 More of the leaves and other stuff will will be washed through the grate and then it'll just be
03:11 Clean cranberries at the bottom and they go into a funnel and then an elevator takes them up and dumps them into
03:16 The truck and then the truck goes on to ocean spray and then they process it
03:21 So cranberry juice the cranberry sauce pre-made in the cans and just a fresh cranberries frozen cranberries, right?
03:28 Yes, they take the berries from there and turn it into all the good good things that we love to eat
03:33 All right. So how long have you been a cranberry farmer? I believe our family grew its first cranberry in 1901
03:40 My birth year. Yeah, that was like a spider or something. I think I don't know
03:44 So in this bog cranberries, obviously, but probably every tiny little creature that you can imagine also
03:50 It's floating on top of this these cranberries. So there are a few spiders and bugs around here, but they're pretty friendly and
03:58 They they won't hurt you. So I'm not scared
04:02 So our family started in 1901
04:06 I'm a fourth generation grower. So currently right now we have members of the third fourth and fifth generation working full-time
04:13 on the farm, we've been members of oceans with the ocean spray cooperative since
04:19 1948 what a lot of people don't know about ocean spray is that it is a cooperative it's owned
04:25 exclusively by the
04:27 700 family cranberry farms across the United States and Canada
04:31 We work together to grow our fruit and then ocean spray takes it and turns it into all the products that you see in the supermarket
04:38 I think my favorite cranberry ocean spray product is probably chocolate-covered craisins. I
04:44 Don't think you can beat them
04:46 Approximately how many cranberries would you if you can guesstimate that we're standing in right now that we're about to harvest millions
04:52 I have no idea I can tell you
04:54 Approximately how many pounds we have floating on the water right here. I would guess we probably have between
05:01 60 and 70 thousand pounds of cranberries floating on the water right now our overall crop for our entire farm
05:07 If you added all our bogs together probably around on average 20 million pounds of cranberries that we grow every year
05:15 And you know, what's crazy. I heard is the fact that
05:17 America's here in the US we eat over 80
05:20 Million pounds of cranberries just for the week of Thanksgiving. It's a fast crazy
05:25 I'm gonna try one of these is that is this safe to try one of you? Yeah, it's safe to eat it
05:29 I would I would say brush the leaf off it and and whatnot
05:33 But then just pop it in your mouth and we'll see what you think. I'm just gonna pop straight up
05:37 Very tart Oh
05:44 But I like it though, I'm not mad at it what's the next step right now?
05:49 All right
05:50 So right now we're gonna suck these cranberries out of the bog up into the cleaning truck and on to ocean spray
05:57 so what you can do we'll get you a paddle you can help us direct the cranberries into the into the pump and
06:02 See what it's like to be a cranberry farmer down in the water. I love it. Let me get that rake. All right
06:09 This is a paddle. So what we're gonna do is we're gonna just push the cranberries towards the pump
06:16 Which is in the middle of that yellow
06:18 Just in that vicinity every pusher directly underneath of that is where the suction pen is
06:24 For the pump where the cranberries are going to get pumped out of the bog and up into the truck
06:29 That was an experience right there so like I came out a new man now you've been in the bog
06:42 Let's go. Yeah wet. Let's go
06:45 Take a look at what a cranberry looks like on the vine so you can see what it looks like before it gets to this
06:50 Stage so let's go
06:53 So
06:55 Rome this is what a bog looks like before we flood it to harvest
07:00 Maybe I can show you how my ancestors harvested fruit before the wet harvesting method was developed
07:07 I love it. This is a cranberry scoop and the way it works is you
07:12 run the teeth through the cranberry vines and then pull back and
07:17 The berries will end up inside of here and then these are the boxes that the cranberry harvesters used to use
07:25 As they would scoop so they would scoop all day back breaking work and fill up boxes just like this
07:30 How old is this we started water harvesting in the late 1960s?
07:36 So it could have these could have dated, you know, certainly date back that far if not farther
07:41 So we're really doing it old school. Yeah, really doing it old school
07:45 With the with the scoop you think we could do it. We can give it a try. Let's do it. All right
07:50 Still wet you lied to me still wet. Yeah. Well, we'll find a dry spot over here and these are the vines, right?
07:57 Yeah, so these are the vines take a look you can see lots of cranberries growing pull them up
08:03 So we'll be harvesting this bog sometime in the next week
08:05 Now the vines are laying a certain direction and where we're standing they're all pointed this way
08:10 So we have to scoop into the vines. You don't want to go too deep
08:13 You want to just put your your teeth in just a couple inches below the top of the vines scoop straight and pull back
08:20 And then you've got you got some cranberries right there that is so cool
08:27 Once you get fast at it, you can just do multiple scoops in a row
08:32 It's like homey. Yeah, almost fill this up with you know, several several scoops. So give it a try. Oh, yeah
08:39 It's like a groove you can answer. Yep
08:42 So then once you get it full come over here
08:44 Hey, not bad, so you're gonna be able to make some delicious stuff out of that many cranberries, right? Yeah, it's been a long day
08:56 We didn't need some sandwiches after this. I'm sure you're gonna do some amazing things with these cranberries
09:01 I got I got something in mind for these for sure Shawn. This has been truly
09:06 Amazing. This was a bucket list thing. I had on my body even though I had
09:11 We really appreciate you coming out. Thanks so much and
09:14 Looking forward to what you're gonna do with those cranberries cranberries all year round. I already know what I'm gonna make
09:19 I could take this me right. There's all me right here. Yeah, that's all you that is all you look at that
09:24 That's bounty. I'm gonna take it to the frame. I'll build a whip cram colored rip. That's a mouthful to say
09:30 Get out of here. All right. All right. Thanks again. Yep. Take care and enjoy. Thank you
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