Long, hot summer makes for bumper cranberry crop

Saturday, October 10, 2015, 5:30 PM - As the nation gathers to celebrate the annual Thanksgiving holiday this weekend, most tables will be adorned with a bowl of sparkling, ruby red cranberry sauce to accompany a traditional turkey dinner.

There is truly no better time than autumn to enjoy and celebrate the bounties of another cranberry harvest -- and farms across Canada have been busy reaping the benefits of what is shaping up to be a bumper crop.

Cranberries are indigenous to North America, and in Canada, the small, red berries thrive in parts of British Columbia, Ontario, Quebec and the Maritimes. Most of the country's commercially grown cranberry comes out of Richmond, B.C., where bogs encompass more than 2,500 hectares.

Every year, cranberries are harvested between mid-September and mid-November against the colours of stunning autumn backdrops. 

Though the berries are white when they first appear on the vine, days of warm, summer sunshine help ripen and change them to their signature deep red hue. Once the flavour and colour of the tart, red berries peak, farmers know it's time for the harvest to begin.

RELATED: Harvest season: See 6 giant award-winning vegetables

The harvest season typically peaks around Thanksgiving, drawing people out to bogs and marshes across the country to catch a glimpse of the unique process.

The fruit is a low-growing woody perennial that thrives in moist, acidic soils such as peat. Cranberry vines are grown in large fields, often referred to as bogs or marshes.

When the time comes to pick the yield, fields are flooded, causing the semi-hollow berries to float atop the water's surface. Combine-like machines called beaters dislodge the berries from the vines.

A long, hot B.C. summer has contributed to what some farmers are calling a banner year for their crops in the Richmond area.

But the weather isn't the only important factor needed for a perfect growing season.

“This should have been the perfect season but there has been a decline over the last decade or so,” said Lynn Kemper, vice president of Richberry Group, the largest growers of cranberries in the country. A consistent decline in harvest on the peat bogs over the last 10 years or so has compelled Richberry to enlist the help of a number of soil scientists from local universities and facilities in the United States.

“It’s been getting worse each year; it could be the degradation of the peat, we’re not sure. We have soil scientists working on it with infrared imagery and they’ve been taking core samples.”

Harvested cranberries are sold fresh or frozen, dried, or processed as juice or sauce. 

Research has revealed some of the positive effects on human health of chemicals that occur naturally in cranberries. For example, cranberries can prevent or mitigate urinary tract infections and stomach ulcers. Cranberries also have anticancer effects. Antioxidants in cranberries have the potential to protect against age-related loss of coordination and memory.

Source: Richmond News | Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada

MUST SEE VIDEO BELOW: It's a bird, it's a plane, it's a...pumpkin?