Cranberries in Water
…
No they aren’t. It just looks that way.
Harvested using Water
Every image we see that involves cranberry farming usually depicts a farmer wearing those flyfishing type pants, who happens to be knee-deep in water and is surrounded by millions of cranberries.
So of course is logical to assume that cranberries grow underwater or at least in pools of water like lakes or rivers etc.
The company Ocean Spray had those popular commercials for their cranberry juice that showed two farmers in a cranberry bog, in water up to their knees and cranberries floating all around them. And since most of us won’t look up cranberry farming or purposely visit a cranberry farm, our exposure to how these berries grow is limited to commercials and images like the one above.
WATER IS USED FOR HARVEST ONLY
Cranberries grow in marshy, moist wetlands called bogs. They grow on plants or vines out of this particular type of soil that’s naturally found in the northeastern United States.
Picking them by hand is a long and tedious job and so to make the harvest a lot easier the farmers flood the cranberry crops the day before so that they all float to the surface. This makes them much easier to gather.
Native Cranberries
It’s so much more fun though to imagine that cranberries do grow underwater, or in big pools somehow. Unfortunately that’s not the case but they still are an interesting plant regardless.
Hope this helps.
– Cranby
