For cranberry farmers, it’s all about family — starting with harvesting, all the way through to consumption.
Last week, multi-generational families of farmers from Richmond and South Coast, Mass. visited the Rockefeller Center in New York to promote the fruit.
In waders, flannel shirts and galoshes, they were appropriately dressed, as they literally waded around a pop-up cranberry bog.
Clinton May, a fifth-generation farmer and third-generation cranberry farmer from Richmond, had never before been to New York.
He and his father, mother, and wife spent their inaugural visit at the crossroads of two very distinct worlds.
“It’s neat to look up and see 800-foot buildings all around and you are in this little cranberry field,” he said.
Ocean Spray is hopping aboard a national marketing trend by returning to the use of its retro labeling. At the same time, the brand used the opportunity to allow its farmers, of which there are about 700 who co-own the cooperative company, to let consumers know how they live and work.
These families of farmers are in a business whose roots are in the ground, on family owned property. The cranberry represents months, years and even decades of inter-generational connectedness.
“They own this brand and they want to see it be successful,” said Rod Serres, an agricultural scientist for Ocean Spray.
A family signs a three-year contract when they join the Ocean Spray co-op, and during that time period the co-op promises to sell all the berries that are produced by its owners.
“It’s not competitive farming like some other industries where it’s farmer versus farmer,” said Serres. “It’s this feeling that they want to help each other and the brand.”
This year has been a good one for cranberry farmers from Massachusetts to Richmond. For most, harvest season ended Friday. They’ll spend the rest of the year repairing equipment and renovating structures and facilities. In the spring they’ll start watching for frost, which sometimes has them working through the night.
Clinton May estimates that on average, each Ocean Spray grower harvests about half a million pounds of cranberries. With more than 220 cranberry producing acres, his family harvests around 40 million pounds of cranberries per year.
