How Ocean Spray Harvests Millions Of Cranberries For Thanksgiving

Delish

Ever wondered how Ocean Spray harvests their delicious cranberries that are ready for you just in time for Thanksgiving?

Transcript

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

09:35 You

09:37 You

09:39 You

09:41 (upbeat music)

09:44 (thud)

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