Today Barbara and I went on a trip put on by the Ocean County Park System called Cranberries: Wet/Dry. The day started out by driving to the Wells Mills County Park were after signing in we got into a county park van and drove to a working cranberry farm. We were met by the farmer at one of his bogs that was being wet harvested. A cranberry bog is a field that has an earthen damn all around it with a ditch that is about 6 feet deep just inside the damn. The field were the cranberries grow is about 4 feet below the top of the earthen damn so that it can be flooded for harvesting. The first step in harvesting the cranberries is to flood the bog. They do this by opening flood gates that let the water in from the reservoirs that are upstream (if they need to they can use pumps but they try not to). The first field we visited was already flooded and they were getting the berries off of the plants with a boat that has large mixer type blades set sideways to churn the water and get the berries to come off of the plants. The berries float because they have four little pockets of air in the middle. After the mixer is done they then put out a cranberry boom (much like the oil booms used for oil spills) to corral the berries so they can pull them out of the water. They use blowers and men with rakes to push the berries away from the sides of the damns while they drag the boom out and corral the berries. While they were getting ready to put the boom out we went across the road to an un-flooded field and the farmer explained the growth cycle of a cranberry vine. Not sure I could explain it very well so I will not try, I am sure if you are that interested you can look it up yourself. You will notice in the pictures of the close-up of the cranberries floating in the bog that there are red and white berries. They are not two different varieties but the white ones are berries that did not get as much sun because they were not as close to the top of the vines. They are all ripe berries and when they are processed it all turns red. We then went back across the road and saw them putting out the boom. Then because the weather here was going to get nasty we left as we had other places to get to. We did not see them getting the berries out of the water but we can go again another time and see that. Ocean Spray has a transfer station about a mile from the farm and while we were there I saw at least 3 tracker trailers and one dump truck go by full of cranberries.
Our next stop was the Chatsworth General Store where, after going in and looking around, we sat outside on a bench and ate our lunch that we had brought with us. While we were there the store owner put out a box of Jersey Devil Chocolates so of course Barbara sent me in to get some. They are Dark Chocolate with Chili and Cranberries not sure if we will like it but we will try it.
Our last stop (because of the weather) was Cloverdale Farm County Park. The county park system has acquired this old cranberry farm that still has a bog that produces a crop. It had an old farm house that the county had fixed up to be a visitor center but just before it was going to open someone broke into it and burned it down, what a waste. Well we got out and were allowed to go into the cranberry field and pick cranberries. The berries were not as plentiful or as big as the ones at the first farm but it was fun anyway. Just as everyone had gotten all the berries they wanted it started to rain, but we did it all.
Here are some pictures from todays adventure.
