Farmers grow cranberries on a piece of land called a bog. A bog is ground that is wet and soft. In the winter, starting in December, they flood all of the cranberry bogs to make ice that will help protect the cranberry vines through the winter. The ice acts as a protective coat for the plants.
Spring is when cranberry vines do most of their growing. In the summer, the cranberry farmers make sure there are bees near the cranberry plants. In June, they bring in beehives for the bog. The bees travel from one cranberry flower to another, carrying pollen, which helps grow new cranberry vines. The summer is a good time to see all the pink flowers that grow on the vines.
The fall is a very busy time for cranberry farmers. They pick cranberries in the fall.
The cranberry farmers pick cranberries by flooding the bogs with water. They loosen the berries from their vines with a special machine and the berries float to the top of the water! They are able to push the berries into another machine where they go into storage and are processed. People are able to make things like cranberry sauce and cranberry juice, and use the berries in cooking.
Links to Cranberry Education