Actually, they’ve been there all along. This is the Harvestman, also known as Daddy-longlegs. The National Institute of Health suggests that cranberry juice helps prevent UTIs though. See more ideas about Recipes, Food, Cooking recipes. Navigate the map to find a participating farm. This is especially true around the holidays (though some do go into cosmos too). The fruit is delivered to fresh fruit receiving From the top of the truck, the bog is gorgeous; different shades of red look like spilled paint on a black canvas. Additionally check out our Cranberry Harvest Guide under Our Berries for locations where you may be able to see a cranberry harvest in action. The name, cranberry, derives from the German, kraanbere (English translation, craneberry), first named as cranberry in English by the missionary John Eliot in 1647. As you know from the article, cranberries float, so the good ones should float and the bad ones sink. ", I shimmy through the bog, hoping that it helps deter the arachnids from anchoring onto me. Like tiny acrobats balancing on red balls, the birds paid no mind to the workers moving the cranberries, as each bird hopped from berry to berry picking off small spiders. That’s what allows it to float, and ultimately what makes wet harvests possible. The cranberry fruit cycle is 16 months long, with bud set occurring around June of year 1, and harvest occurring in the fall of the following year. Having hiked the trail countless times, this is the first time I was treated to this discovery. In Massachusetts, dry harvests account for only 10 percent of a grower’s crop, while wet harvesting — which produces berries for juicing and processing into other food products like Craisins — accounts for the remaining 90 percent. Pick through them and remove any squishy, brown, or discolored berries. I hop on a picker with Ben and we drive into the flooded bog, following a line of wooden stakes that Cas, who is in the picker ahead of us, has thrust in the water to guide us. Kristen Stanley | I am a full-time Mom, Wife and REALTOR...I love everyone of my titles, and will be here for my children, husband and clients anytime! By the time I look up, it’s the size of a claustrophobic kiddie pool and they’re telling us to get out. New cranberry beds are typically planted between March and May, and require about 3 years to reach full production potential, reaching their peak after 4 to 6 years. "Not loving the spiders at all.”. So, in this light, much like the Turkey Snood post, we'll start this one with a short natural history of the cranberry and follow up with a  homemade cranberry sauce recipe that has been in our family for a long time. I’m living out a dream I didn’t even realize I had -- what I can only imagine is akin to what it's like to star in an Ocean Spray commercial. The salicyclic acid in cranberries is also an ingredient found in aspirin, which is  is used to reduce swelling and prevent blood clots. Now it’s October, smack dab in the middle of a harvest season that starts around mid-August and ends in early November. It is thought that that acidity of cranberries, and the chemicals in them, prevent bacteria from sticking to the lining of the urinary tract. Drinking cranberry juice can increase the amount of oxalate in urine by as much as 43%, which is a lot! Some growers dry- harvest the berries. Here's a great video on how cranberries are harvested. So, like the spiders, I’m currently standing in the middle of a wet harvest, just trying to keep up. Some cranberry diseases are also very limited in range, meaning that cranberry bogs in Wisconsin may experience a disease that is only problematic in that region. Something's holding me back, though, as I try to convince myself that the next-level amount of baby wolf spiders -- in the bog, on the berries, crawling up our waders into our hair -- isn't freaking me out. We’ve missed the harvesting season for white cranberries, which are the first variety ripe for the picking, but we are right on time to participate in the wet and dry harvests of the colorful red varieties like Early Blacks, Stevens, and Howes. For this, cranberry growers use a mechanical picker that looks like a large lawnmower. Even though you might feel annoyed with your nosy neighbors, now you know there’s a number of common herbs that look like weed, plants that look like pot, and even trees that look like marijuana. 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