The Life of a Cranberry
Intro
Native to North America, the cranberry is a tart red berry that grows on evergreen shrubs in acid peat soils. The plants, known as vines, grow in boggy beds of sand, peat and gravel. Normally, these beds are not replanted; undamaged cranberry vines will survive almost indefinitely.
Harvest Info
Our cranberries are grown by Hiller Farms in Massachusetts, USA. They are specialist cranberry producers, who supply dry harvested fruit for the fresh market, as well as wet harvested cranberries for processing, primarily juicing. Hiller Farms is a family business with expertise about cranberry production over many years.
Originally, cranberries were harvested by hand (this actually ceased in 1850), although there are now two preferred methods employed
Wet Harvest
The bogs are flooded to a depth of 6 - 18 inches. Ripe berries are dislodged from the vines, and then float to the surface (they contain internal 'air pockets'). Berries are scooped up and pumped into waiting trucks. Although the pictures above look very attractive, this technique does not result in the best quality fruit. We do not use this method, pictures for information only.
Dry Harvest
Mechanical pickers which look a little like lawn mowers, comb through the vines and scoop up the berries using metal 'teeth'. The berries are emptied into large bins which are airlifted (sometimes by helicopter!) to waiting trucks, and taken back to the packhouse to be graded. The harvest in the USA takes place during October and November.
The grading process
When the berries arrive at the packhouse they are unpacked and passed along a line where any debris is blown out by air jets. The berries are then dropped down "bounce boards" to remove any damaged or soft berries (these will not bounce). Other methods have been trialed, but this old technique has proved to be the most successful.
The berries then move along a conveyor belt and are passed through a UV light, which indicates whether the berries have any bruising or internal damage. These berries are then blown out by air jets and discarded.
Finally, the berries are passed through a manual sorting room for final inspection.
Other info
The cranberries are packed in large cardboard boxed and shipped to the UK in containers. Once at the packhouse, they are sorted for quality, packed into punnets, labeled and weighed for delivery to depot.
Because cranberries have small internal air pockets, they are natural 'bouncing berries'. You will know if your cranberries are past their best as they will no longer bounce when dropped!
British-grown berries account for a large percentage of the total volume of berries bought by consumers each year.
BerryWorld also sources a wide range of soft fruits for the UK market from across the globe.
Information about our breeding programmes and new product development.