I tried to go watch this year’s cranberry harvest operations twice this weekend. Yesterday was a total flop. It rained hard, I got lost and arrived one hour late, and the harvest tour would not let anyone get off the bus for safety reason.
Today was different. The sun was out, and I drove to the Pine Barrens to find cranberry fields. Here’s how one looked prior to being flooded with water.
Cranberry field
A closer look at the ripe berries:
Cranberries
This was a flooded field as a harvesting machine plucked berries from the vines to let them float to the surface.
Cranberries being harvested
Slowly but surely cranberries covered the water surface.
Cranberries floating
Cranberries under a fine blue sky
Harvest machine
The machine operator, Herbert Armstrong, who is also a foreman for the Lee Brothers company, let me take pictures freely and even gave me a CD of photos of cranberry operations.
Harvester operator Herbert Armstrong
As he left at the end of the day, Herb was holding a GPS which he used to keep track of where his machine went in each field, so as not to miss any area.
neihtn 
Fascinating process, Hien, and wonderful accompanying photos. I have always wondered how cranberries are harvested. 😀
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Very interesting facts! I have never seen a cranberry field!
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Fantastic post!
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Thank you!
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Way cool! I hope u brought some berries home!
Sent from my iPad
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Thanks, Kim. I didn’t buy any to take home. There was no place to buy them, the whole harvest was for Ocean Spray.
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What a fascinating process to observe. These photos are great.
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Cranberries floating… phenomenal! Thank you for making such effort to capture these fantastic scene, Hien!
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Thanks Amy. You would have a fantastic time with your camera amid the cranberry bogs.
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Me and my camera would go nuts there… 🙂
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hi hien,
never knew how cranberry is harvested, until now, thank you.
ken
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There is also hand picking, a backbreaking endeavor that is now only used 1% of the time. Thanks for visiting!
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that’s an ingenious way to prevent back problems! The 1% are probably the purist with smaller plots to harvest.
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This is fascinating! I used to think cranberries grew on trees, until someone told be they grew in bogs. I’ve never seen the harvesting process. Your post is great :-). Where is the bog you featured?
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The bogs are south of the town of Chatsworth, NJ on Route 563.
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That’s funny, I was very near there last month visiting some friends!
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EXTRAORDINARY !!! I knew nothing of cranberries, Hien: you have widened my horizons enormously. Lovely shots of an amazing activity.
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Thanks, M-R. Glad you enjoyed this post.
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That is so beautiful and what a huge place!
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Thank you, Jamie, for visiting and commenting!
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These are fantastic and something I have never seen before!
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Thanks Sue! You have seen so many things that I haven’t, so this is one time I have the advantage. 🙂
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You are a tireless Hunter. Beautiful pictures.
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You should have come. There was no one around, except for the operator, and I was able to take many pictures from all different directions.
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