Great Escapes: Cranberry Bog Tour

Ever wonder where the cranberries you eat and drink come from? Chances are, right here in Massachusetts. If you want to see the harvest for yourself, no problem. You can get to Southeast Massachusetts on less than a tank.

Most visitors to Plymouth stop to see The Mayflower or gaze at Plymouth Rock. But this time of year, a native fruit shares the spotlight. The Bay State is the second largest producer of cranberries -- only Wisconsin grows more.

Mel Allen, Travel Editor, Yankee Magazine
"I think we are the most associated with cranberries. Wisconsin can have the numbers. We have the tradition."

You can hop aboard Bettyann's Tours for a behind the scenes bog tour. The cost is $22.00 per person.

Brenda Silvieus, Cranberry bog tourist
"This is a once in a lifetime chance to see how cranberries are harvested. It’s just a lot of fun and its beautiful, it's like going back to nature."

Bettyann Archambault drives us by gleaming crimson fields that are brimming with berries.

Bettyann Archambault, Bettyann's Tours
"We're going to go out to a cranberry bog that's actually doing wet harvesting."

When we arrive, we learn our first big cranberry secret.

Bettyann Archambault, Bettyann's Tours
"Everybody just take one...and hold it."

We each bite a cranberry in half...revealing what's inside.

Bettyann Archambault, Bettyann's Tours
"See the four little air pockets that are in the berry? That's why they float."

Which explains why farmers flood their bogs with lots of water. Machines called separators slice through, separating the berries from their vines. And all that precious fruit floats right to the top.

John Talcott, cranberry bog owner
"People get a chance to see what's involved. Most people don't know much about cranberries, it's sort of a unique type of farming."

Getting the crop from the bog to the truck isn't easy. Workers corral the berries and guide them towards a suction pump that pulls the berries through the water and into this sorting machine.

Berries pump out of the machine and into the truck. When it's full it can hold more than 36,000 pounds!

Bob Connors, cranberry bog tourist
"People don't know what they're missing in the city. This is really something."

It's something that mesmerizes not only the people on our tour, but also the tiny "bog" frogs that live here. As for Bettyann, she'll be out in the bogs everyday 'til harvest ends in late October.

Boston to Plymouth is just 80 miles roundtrip. In my next "Great Escape", take in the fall beauty of Western Mass. As we watch local artisans at work.

For more information:

BettyAnn's Tours of Plymouth
http://www.bettyannstours.com/
Cranberry bog tour:
Adults: $22
P.O. Box 455
Manomet, MA 02345
(508) 224-6469

Tours depart daily from the visitors information center on the Plymouth waterfront

A Big Day For A Little Berry - The First Annual Harvest Celebration
saturday, October 9, Ad Makepeace Co. Wareham, MA
http://www.admakepeace.com/harvest.html

National Cranberry Festival
October 9, 10, and 11, Edaville Railroad, Carver, MA
http://www.edaville.org/events.htm

Flax Pond Cranberry Farm Tours
Open September 17, 2004, Carver, Massachusetts.
Open everyday 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. until the end of October
http://www.flaxpondfarms.com/