Cranberry Harvest Season on the South Coast: When and Where to See It

Drive the back roads of Rochester, Wareham or Carver in October and you’ll come around a bend to a field of floating red. A flooded cranberry bog at harvest is one of the great sights of New England fall, and it happens right here. For us it’s also the end of a story that starts in June, when our bees are out on those same bogs.

Quick answer: In Massachusetts, cranberries are harvested from mid-September to early November, with most of the work in October. About 95% of the crop is wet-harvested: growers flood the bog, knock the berries loose, and the berries float to the surface to be corralled. The other 5% is dry-harvested for fresh fruit. You can see harvests from public roads around Rochester, Wareham, Carver and Middleborough, or book a tour with farms such as Hartley Family Farm in Rochester.

When is cranberry harvest season in Massachusetts?

From mid-September to early November, according to the Cape Cod Cranberry Growers’ Association, with October the busiest month. Each grower sets their own schedule, depending on when their berries color up and on the weather. Growers also run sprinklers on cold nights in fall to protect the ripening fruit from frost. If you’re planning a visit, aim for October and check with a farm before you go.

How are cranberries harvested?

Two ways, and the method decides where the berries end up.

Wet harvest

About 95% of the Massachusetts crop is wet-harvested and used for juice, sauce, dried cranberries and other products. Growers flood the bog with water, then drive machines through the vines to knock the berries loose. Each cranberry has small air pockets inside, so the loose berries float to the surface. Workers in waders use floating booms to gather them into a tight red raft, and the berries are pumped or conveyed into trucks. Those are the photos everyone takes.

Dry harvest

The other 5% or so is picked dry for fresh fruit, the bags you buy at the grocery store or a farm stand. Walk-behind machines comb the berries off the vines into burlap bags. The vines have to be completely dry, so a heavy dew or overnight rain can hold up picking. On larger bogs, bins of berries are sometimes lifted off by helicopter.

Do cranberries grow underwater?

No. Cranberries grow on low, trailing vines in bogs built from layers of sand, peat, gravel and clay, many of them in old glacial kettle holes. The bogs are only flooded for harvest and for winter protection. The industry’s history goes back to the early 1800s, when Henry Hall of Dennis noticed that blowing sand helped his vines grow, and growers still spread a thin layer of sand on their bogs every few years. Some vines on Cape Cod are more than 150 years old and still bear fruit.

Where can you see the cranberry harvest near the South Coast?

Most bogs are working farms on private land, but many are visible from public roads. A few growers offer tours:

• Hartley Family Farm, Rochester: offers cranberry harvest tours.
• Cape Cod Cranberry Bog Tours, East Sandwich: tours on Cape Cod.
• A.D. Makepeace, Wareham: one of the largest growers, with a retail shop, Makepeace Farms.
• Benson’s Pond, Middleborough: a family farm that has offered bog tours in past seasons.

The Massachusetts Cranberries organization publishes a Harvest Trail Map and can point you to growers; call 508-866-7878 or visit cranberries.org. The well-known Cranberry Harvest Celebration in Wareham ended after its 15th year in 2018, so look for farm tours instead.

A few courtesies: pull fully off the road to watch, don’t walk onto bogs or dikes without permission, and keep an eye out for harvest trucks, which use the same narrow roads.

What do bees have to do with cranberries?

Everything, earlier in the year. Cranberry vines bloom from mid-June to mid-July, and each flower needs insects to move its pollen. More pollen means more seeds, and more seeds mean bigger berries. Native bumblebees do part of the work, but a commercial bog has far more flowers than wild bees can visit, so growers rent honeybee hives during bloom. Nettie’s Bees started exactly that way: Nettie’s first hive was for a local cranberry grower.

Our post on how honeybees pollinate cranberries explains how it works, and if you grow cranberries, see our pollination services. The nectar from that bloom becomes cranberry honey, a mild, fruity honey that tastes of June on the bogs.

Why does Massachusetts grow so many cranberries?

Because cranberries are native here, and southeastern Massachusetts is where commercial cranberry growing began. Today more than 200 growers farm over 11,500 acres of bogs in the region, and cranberries are the state’s No. 1 food crop. Massachusetts grows about a fifth of the nation’s cranberries. For every acre of bog, growers keep 3 to 5 acres of wetlands, woods and uplands, protecting about 60,000 acres of open space.

Frequently asked questions

When is the best time to see cranberry bogs flooded in Massachusetts?

October is the best month. Harvest runs from mid-September to early November, and most bogs are flooded and harvested during October. Each grower sets their own schedule, so the same road can show different stages on different days.

Can you visit a cranberry bog?

Yes, with permission. Most bogs are private working farms, but some, such as Hartley Family Farm in Rochester and Cape Cod Cranberry Bog Tours in East Sandwich, offer tours during harvest. Many others are visible from public roads.

Why are cranberry bogs flooded?

Flooding makes harvesting easier. Cranberries have air pockets inside, so once machines knock them off the vines, they float and can be gathered from the surface. Bogs are also flooded in winter to protect the vines from cold and drying winds.

Are wet-harvested cranberries sold fresh?

Usually not. Wet-harvested berries go to juice, sauce and dried cranberries. The fresh cranberries in bags at the store are dry-harvested, about 5% of the Massachusetts crop.

Do bees pollinate cranberries?

Yes. Cranberry flowers need insects to carry pollen. Native bumblebees help, and growers rent honeybee hives during bloom, from mid-June to mid-July, to make sure the bogs are fully pollinated.

Sources

• Cape Cod Cranberry Growers’ Association (Massachusetts Cranberries), “How Cranberries Grow,” “Dry Harvest” and “Fresh Fruit & Bog Tours,” cranberries.org.
• CapeCod.com, “Final Cranberry Harvest Festival Kicks Off in Wareham Columbus Day Weekend,” 2018.

If you’re out on the back roads this October, stop and watch a harvest for a while. And when you’re done, the bees’ side of the story is waiting at our Honey House in Rochester.