Cranberries are harvested generally one of two ways--either to be made into sauce, juice, etc. or to be sold as fresh fruit. When made into sauce or juice, the berries are usually harvested in a flooded bed. A machine called a water reel harvester is used to dislodge the berries from the vines. In other words, the machine's spinning reel vibrates the ripe berries which break loose from the vines and then float on the water.

Because this is the most common type of harvest with photos seen of red floating berries, it is commonly believed that cranberries grow under water. But they don’t. They grow in what are called beds which are surrounded by ditches, dikes and roads. In fact, if growing conditions are too damp the berries are subject to fungus rot.

Once the cranberries are floating, they are then corralled to one corner of the bed with devices called boomboards. These boards are hooked together forming a long chain and are pulled by workers, scooping the berries into one spot to be picked up by conveyors and loaded into a truck. The truck then carries them to equipment for an initial cleaning and then into a waiting semi trailer to be hauled to a nearby cleaning station. Here they undergo a final cleaning before being frozen and transported to the processor. There are variations of the above harvest description but this is the most common technique.

Centennial Cranberry Farm has a water reel harvester that was constructed by a talented neighbor. The berries we harvest for juice and sauce are sold to Cliffstar Corporation of Dunkirk, New York. Cliffstar is the largest private label processor in this country and processes fresh cranberries, grape and apple juice for Walmart, Sam’s brand, and many many others. Cliffstar has a processing plant at Warrens, Wisconsin which is where our berries are generally trucked at harvest time, a 450 mile trip.

A fresh fruit harvest is somewhat different. Because the reel of the harvester machine dents the berries, those are not acceptable for fresh fruit sales. Dented berries, just like bruised apples, spoil fast. Therefore, machines that comb the berries from the vines are used instead. These machines have tines and are usually of two varieties -- a large machine that operates on a flooded bed and a smaller machine that dry picks the cranberries. The bigger machine is used by cranberry growers with larger acreages who may sell to commercial processors to be sold on store shelves. In that case, when the berries are combed off the vines underwater, they shoot into a side bin with workers pulling the bins to one corner of the marsh. These bins are then lifted by crane into a dump truck and are dried, cleaned and bagged right there on the farm. Many Ocean Spray fresh fruit growers operate this way.

The smaller machines are shaped similar to lawn mowers. They are walked through the dry bed and the berries are combed, lifted and dropped into a box at the back of the machine. These boxes are dumped into the top of what’s called a Hayden or Bailey Separator. A blower at the top removes most of the loose vines, leaves and other debris and the berries then fall down bounce boards which are small shelves at the back of the machine. The reason for this is that only a good berry will bounce. The rotten ones fail the bounce test and fall on the ground. The good berries come through the front of the machine where small slots allow tiny berries to fall through. They then come down two conveyors which are attached at the front of the machine. Up to four people can sit at these conveyors to give the berries a final sort. Many growers, such as us, pick, clean, sort, bag and sell their berries right on their farm.