HomeFeaturesCranberry Season in New Jersey

Cranberry Season in New Jersey

Get ready, cranberry lovers: The tiny, tart berry with the big bounce is about to flood the stores for cranberry season. “We’re headed into our busiest month,” says Ocean Spray spokeswoman Kellyanne Dignan. “The North American cranberry harvest runs mid-September to mid-November, with October really being primarily when most of the crop will come in.”

Between 10 and 15 percent of the crop is in now, she says, noting that September was warm, and the Thanksgiving-dinner staple needs cold nights for best color.


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She’s not worried about this year’s crop for cranberry season, though. “I always say that Mother Nature is our ultimate CEO. … It gets cold every year eventually.”

That springy, bouncy quality that healthy cranberries have comes from the four air chambers inside the fruit, which is also why they float so well (key to a good harvest). The bounce was accidentally discovered in the 1840s by New Jersey grower John “Peg-Leg” Webb; because of his wooden leg, he poured berries down the stairs instead of carrying them. Only the best quality berries bounced down to the bottom.

NJ Thanksgiving-Cranberries-Cranberry Festival-Selling Berries

Ocean Spray may not bottle its juice in Bordentown anymore – that facility is now home to Bai Brands’ coffeefruit drinks – but the giant cranberry co-op still relies on fruit grown in New Jersey. In fact, if you’ve bought a bottle of Ocean Spray juice recently, you might have seen the photo of a fifth-generation cranberry grower from Chatsworth on the label.

Out of the roughly 700 farms overall that grow cranberries for Ocean Spray, about 20 are in South Jersey, Dignan says, and they produce between 500,000 and 600,000 barrels of cranberries a year. New Jersey is the third-largest cranberry-producing state, behind Wisconsin and Massachusetts.

“We always say here at Ocean Spray that Massachusetts and New Jersey are the spiritual home of the cranberry industry, since Ocean Spray was founded by three growers, two from Massachusetts, one from New Jersey.” The co-op, which was founded in 1930, is marking its 85th harvest this year.

Despite what you’d expect from photos (and all those Ocean Spray commercials), cranberries aren’t actually grown in water. They’re “wet harvested” by flooding the bog and loosening the berries from the vines, allowing the ripe berries to float to the top. “I think that the harvest is so beautiful, it’s really unique,” Dignan says. Wet harvested berries are used to make juices and sauces, while berries that are “dry harvested,” or mechanically combed off the vine, go right to the produce aisle so you can make your own cranberry sauce. Or bread. Or smoothies.

Dignan notes that cranberries, which contain Vitamin C, antioxidants and fiber, are more than just your turkey dinner side dish. “They’re one of only three fruits that are native to North America, and they played a really significant role in our country’s history. They were here when the first European settlers came. Native Americans had used them for thousands of years for different purposes.

“I think people think about them at this time of year, but you can really enjoy cranberries year-round,” she says.


Cran Bog Hero-1500

Where to see them

  • If you’d like to see a cranberry bog up close, Pine Barrens Native Fruits in Browns Mills offers tours. For more, see: Their website
  • In New York, Ocean Spray will be bringing its pop-up cranberry bog to Rockefeller Center for the 11th time Nov. 3-4. Visitors to the “Big Apple Bog” can learn about the fruit and get tips from a celebrity chef.
  • If you’re looking for a party, the annual Chatsworth Cranberry Festival is held mid-October in downtown Chatsworth, featuring music, antiques, a classic car show and all the cranberry products you can eat. For more, see: Cranfest website

How to use them

How versatile are cranberries? You could make a whole meal out of them.

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Hero (Top) Feature Image: © John Stringfellow / BestofNJ.com
First Body Image: © Val Roy Gerischer / BestofNJ.com
Second Body Image: © John Stringfellow / BestofNJ.com
Gallery Images: © Val Roy Gerischer, John Stringfellow / BestofNJ.com, and courtesy of Ocean Spray

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