Cranberry Farm

One of the best things about life of the Southern Oregon Coast is the fall cranberry harvest.

Bandon is a small town with breathtaking coastal views, a vibrant art community and a wealth of not-so-obvious cranberry bogs. I say this because they appear, to the casual observer, to be unassuming little plots of land. If I were driving past on highway 101, (and didn't know better) I'd wonder what the heck was growing in those concave square lots.

Earlier this month, Max and I had the pleasure of getting up close and personal with some cranberry bushes. My husband was visiting a client at a small mobile home park in Bandon. Max and I took our leave to walk a gravel county road adjacent to the park. We admired the homes in the cute residential area and marveled at the Chanterlle mushrooms growing right in peoples yards when a woman in a large SUV stopped next to us.

"Can I help you find something?", she inquired. I suspect she was being protective of her neighborhood. I explained we were just out for a walk. "Follow this road to the end and you'll find the cranberry bogs" she said with a nod towards my four-year-old. Well you don't have to ask me twice! I thanked her, said goodbye, and hustled down the road.

We were still surrounded by houses with no fields in sight when Max noticed small red berries on the ground by the road. Sure enough, cranberries. They must have fallen from a delivery truck?

We hadn't walked far from the Highway and I was skeptical that a whole cranberry farm could just pop up in this little residential area when we turned a corner and VOILA!- Acres and Acres of fields. It was amazing. A little like finding a sunny beach in the middle of Times Square.

The sunken plots of low growing cranberry bushes were surrounded by canals of water. This is to help with the picking. You see, cranberry bushes are small, dense, and difficult to pick from. Flooding the canals with water brings the berries to the top. As they float on the surface, a special machine culls them from the plants. Brilliant!

We were gamboling about and taking it all in when a large, white farm truck approached. My first thought was to wonder if we would get in trouble for being there. Turns out, the workers were super friendly and more than happy to give Max a sort of private tour. They even crawled into a bog and plucked fresh berries from the plants for him.

I don't remember the gentleman's name, but he explained to us that all thier berries are sent out to be cleaned, then frozen in large bags and finally shipped to OceanSpray. They don't really do anything with them here.

He also explained the myster of the 'white' cranberry. On the East Coast, where I lived previously, the cranberries were a pale color. That is because they have a shorter growing season there and must be picked before the cold weather. At that point, they have not yet turned their characteristic hue.

So Max and I returned with our greedy hands full of cranberries plus a few mushrooms
we harvested roadside. My husband just laughed when we got in the truck with our treasures.

I was so fired up I bought a few pounds of Bandon Cranberries, took them home and made cranberry sauce. I canned whole berries first, and then tried the recipe for the jellied sauce. For Thanksgiving dinner we tried both. The vote was split, My hubby and I like the whole berry sauce, while the kids seem to prefer it jellied.

If you haven't ever liked cranberry sauce, try making it fresh. The diffence is remarkable. It isn't necessary to do any canning. Making just enough sauce for a meal, (such as Christmas dinner) is super easy and quick. It requires just one bag of berries from the store. Most bags have the recipe right on them. You basically just add a lot of sugar and stir until they pop. (that's not a real recipe so don't take me literally)

So there it is. Happy holidays,
-E