The Cranberry Harvest, Landers Farms, Ellisville, Plymouth, Massachusetts, USA

It is a practice that plays out annually in thousands of sandy bogs in southeastern Massachusetts at this time of year - the cranberry harvest. The State of Massachusetts is second only to Wisconsin for total cranberry production within the United States.  For most of the year, we drive by countless bogs visible from the roadways.  The bogs seem still, no visible change is apparent, it's not like a corn field where the stalks grow noticeably higher all summer - but come fall, the bogs see a flurry of activity as the crop is harvested.  If harvesting using the the wet-harvest method, the bogs are flooded for just that purpose.

I had the opportunity with the Plymouth Digital Photographers Club to visit and observe one such harvest recently at one of the bogs owned by the Landers Farms. 

This is the view from atop the suction/vacuum truck.  It wouldn't fit in the frame so I had to tilt the camera. But I'm getting ahead of myself..........

It all started with Beau. Before the trucks arrived to load the berries, Beau expressed interest in the dry harvest method which uses the comb-like scoops shown above to separate the berries from the vines.

Beau was insistent that his incisors were the model for the tines in the scoop and demonstrated that point to us. But we are here today to observe the wet-harvest method so, Beau, better luck next year. 

The process began long before I arrived -  flooding the bogs, then running a tractor-like machine down the rows to separate the berries from the vines so they will float to the surface.  Then, using the machine above, a floating boom is unrolled and carried through the water to encircle the berries to create a corral.

The harvest crew does a lot of raking, pushing, and pulling to get the berries tightly corralled and ready to be vacuumed/suctioned out of the bog and into a transport truck.

For two months or so, this crew travels from bog to bog, farm to farm, spending their days, rain or shine, wading through knee/thigh-deep water to harvest the crop.

Beautiful outdoor spaces like this become their daily workplace.

But t-shirt weather is coming to an end soon as the season progresses.

Anchoring the inlet head of the vacuum/suction hose.

Nice rabbit ears.

It looked like difficult and physical work dragging the boom and slogging through deep water.

Eventually, the berries are tightly corralled and ready to be picked up.  The red truck at right above will move next to the bog and the crew will hook up the vacuum/suction hose.

Part of the crew took a moment to pose for a picture.

The berries are ready, the vacuum/suction truck is positioned, and the crew enjoys lunch on the hillside while waiting for the transport truck to arrive to haul away the berries.

Making shadow puppets is another way to wait for the truck to arrive - if you are a clever old man like me. 

Eventually, the 18-wheeler transport truck arrives and the pumping begins.

This truck will hold about 500 barrels of berries - not quite enough capacity to hold all that was within the boom - another truck will have to come back later today or tomorrow to finish.

The transport truck is almost full after pumping most of the berries from this four acre bog.

A good crop and a perfect fall day draws to a close.  Everyone is done work except for Beau.........

......he continues to "inspect" the cranberries - either that or maybe someone put a dog biscuit in the box?........