Less Info

Wisconsin is the cranberry capital of the world, thanks to modern rectangular bogs and high-yielding varieties like those used on the Bennett Cranberry farm near Cranmoor, where each fall the bogs are flooded to float the air-filled berries that are then raked and pumped into waiting trucks. It takes three to five years for seed-grown plants to produce fruit, which can be harvested wet for juice, jellies, sauce, and Craisins, or dry for fresh berries. The Badger State’s cool weather and soils are perfect for cranberries, and today the state produces more than half of the global crop. Bennett, like most American cranberry growers, is a member of Ocean Spray, the cooperative founded in 1930 in Massachusetts that purchases and markets 80 percent of the crop grown in the United States. At Ocean Spray’s receiving facility in Tomah, Wisconsin, trucks are elevated to a steep incline to unload the cranberries into wash tanks before they are taken inside for a secondary cleaning and then frozen for later processing. The tart berries, one of only three commercially grown fruits native to North America, were one of the original superfoods—high in vitamin C, manganese, fiber, and antioxidants.

Filename
STNMTZ_20151021_04238.TIF
Copyright
©2015 George Steinmetz
Image Size
3905x2927 / 32.8MB
www.GeorgeSteinmetz.com
Contained in galleries
Wisconsin is the cranberry capital of the world, thanks to modern rectangular bogs and high-yielding varieties like those used on the Bennett Cranberry farm near Cranmoor, where each fall the bogs are flooded to float the air-filled berries that are then raked and pumped into waiting trucks. It takes three to five years for seed-grown plants to produce fruit, which can be harvested wet for juice, jellies, sauce, and Craisins, or dry for fresh berries. The Badger State’s cool weather and soils are perfect for cranberries, and today the state produces more than half of the global crop. Bennett, like most American cranberry growers, is a member of Ocean Spray, the cooperative founded in 1930 in Massachusetts that purchases and markets 80 percent of the crop grown in the United States. At Ocean Spray’s receiving facility in Tomah, Wisconsin, trucks are elevated to a steep incline to unload the cranberries into wash tanks before they are taken inside for a secondary cleaning and then frozen for later processing. The tart berries, one of only three commercially grown fruits native to North America, were one of the original superfoods—high in vitamin C, manganese, fiber, and antioxidants.

All images ©George Steinmetz. Please contact us for usage.