The Evolution of Cranberry Harvesting

In its infancy, hand-picking and a six quart bucket was used to measure the cranberry crop production. Obviously as the industry grew, new and more efficient ways were needed to harvest and measure the crops.

Hand-picking berries was back-breaking and earned the workers about 75 cents a bushel. This was probably a lot in the 1800's, but it didn't take long before inventors were coming up with better methods of harvesting cranberries. A wooden scoop was developed in the 1850s that allowed workers to comb the berries from the vines.

In 1887, Daniel Lumbert developed a different kind of tool called the snap scoop to use on juvenile vines. The pulling action of the regular scoop would sometimes pull young vines from their bed because their roots had not firmly set in the ground. The snap scoop worked by threading the teeth through the vines closing the hinged lid and pull back to gather the berries. It was time-consuming and difficult, but protected the young plants during harvest. Next came the rocker scoop which also a wooden scoop with teeth. Workers placed the scoop under the vine and rocked the scoop up and back to gather the berries.

While some traditionalists still like to use the hand scoop method, the wooden ones are mostly used as antique decoration. Mechanical harvesters have taken over the process of harvesting. Oscar Tervo developed the Mathewson in 1920. This was a dry harvesting machine workers can ride on. The push harvesters were developed in 1947 for dry harvesting. The mechanical harvesters are much like the wooden scoops but they take some of the manual labor out of the process and, of course, it is much faster.

Other harvesting implements needed were separators and graders to keep the bad berries from reaching the consumer. The first patented separator was the Hayden separator in 1912. The Bailey separator came along in 1923. It used the bounce of the ripe berries to weed out the bad ones. It is true that one bad cranberry can ruin the whole bunch or at least accelerate their deterioration.

There are two methods of harvesting cranberries- wet and dry harvesting. Dry harvesting was the only successful method until the 1960s. First, the wooden scoops were used to comb the berries off and then machines took over the combing process. Dry harvesting is how the fresh sold berries are picked. To protect the vines, the berries are lifted out of the bog using helicopters.

In the 1850s, the first attempt at wet harvesting was unsuccessful. It was over a century before it was perfected. Now, it is the fastest and most common method used. Flooding the bog to wet harvest reduces the berries' freshness so these are used to make processed cranberry products. The night before, farmers flood the cranberry beds with eighteen inches of water. The next day, a water reel, also called an egg beater, runs through and loosens the berries from the vine. Because the cranberry has air pockets, they float to the top. A barrier is used to gather the berries into one spot and then they are piped out and into a truck.

After the harvesting is done, the berries are taken to the graders, bounced for firmness, separated and cleaned. Now, the cranberries are ready to become juice, sauce, powder or just plain raw. After the berries are gone, the beds remain flooded. Winter comes and the water freezes to protect the vines in dormancy until Spring comes and the process starts over.