Harvest time on the cranberry farm
Aitkin area family operates Minnesota's only cranberry farm
AITKIN -- It's harvest time on the Forster farm and the beater is hard at work on the peat bog.
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Beater? Peat bog? What in the name of Minnesota agriculture is going on here?
Cranberry harvest, the only one in Minnesota. Randy and Billie Jo Forster bought this 1,800-acre farm east of Aitkin to grow more wild rice, but seeing that the previous owner already had sunk $2.5 million in cranberries it only made sense to maximize that end of the operation. So over the next few years the Forsters will expand the cranberry operation to about 100 acres.
Ron Forster waded amidst a sea of cranberries. The bogs are stripped of cranberries by the beater and then drawn into this corral by people using boards and rakes. Brainerd Dispatch/Steve Kohls
"The nice thing is I bought this at a reasonable price," said Randy, who also owns a construction company that dismantles railroad tracks. "I wanted a job where I wasn't gone all the time."
The Forsters have owned the farm for four years and this is their second harvest. Cranberries are measured by 100-pound barrels. Last year they harvested 350 barrels. This year they hope to get 600. The harvest started Oct. 13 and will be done within a week. The entire crop will be shipped to Tomah, Wis., where it will be cleaned and frozen. After one to three months of curing it will be sold to Ocean Spray and made into juice.
"It's coming right along," said Leroy Kummer, a research associate at Ocean Spray who was at the Forster farm to oversee the harvest. "It's nice to see their progress from year to year. This farm has so much potential."
Potential couldn't keep A.D. Makepeace from selling, however. After planting the cranberry fields seven years ago the Massachusetts-based grower sold the farm to the Forsters because it was too far from the parent operation.
Ron Forster waded amidst a sea of cranberries. The bogs are stripped of cranberries by the beater and then drawn into this corral by people using boards and rakes. Brainerd Dispatch/Steve Kohls
"That and the price for cranberries went way down," Kummer said. "In the early 2000s there were just too many growers."
Competition is the last of the Forsters' concerns. There are about 800 cranberry growers nationwide and the next nearest farm is in Wisconsin. Friday, as Randy toured the farm, he was optimistic.
"With irrigation and fertilizer we can make it work," he said. "The only disaster for a cranberry crop is hail."
A 100-acre reservoir that holds water for the cranberry fields is full. Randy talks about someday building a house on the shore. "We'll have a lake all to ourselves," he said.
Ron Forster waded amidst a sea of cranberries. The bogs are stripped of cranberries by the beater and then drawn into this corral by people using boards and rakes. Brainerd Dispatch/Steve Kohls
Randy also talks about what the cranberry farm could mean to his three young daughters, the oldest of whom started kindergarten this fall.
"With automation going the way it is," he said, "they could run this operation from anywhere in the nation. It could be a nice income for all of them."
But all that's a long ways off. Today on the farm there's a pole shed filled with family, friends and neighbors, a roaster oven filled with wild rice soup and a big pot of coleslaw. The potato farmers from down the road have dropped by for lunch.
Growing cranberries
To grow cranberries, start with a vine from an existing plant and place it in acidic soil, such as peat. Cover the peat with a layer of packed sand to prevent damage to the new cranberry buds.
Water must be carefully controlled throughout the life of the plant. Fire worm and frost both kill young cranberries, but by keeping the plants submerged in water these hazards are avoided.
New cranberry vines must bond together in a canopy and will not produce a harvest for the first five years. But then the crop is perennial the vines will produce for 75 years.
Cranberries are harvested in October. The buds for next year's crop already have formed.
Massachusetts is the top cranberry producing state. Wisconsin ranks second.
It's harvest time on the cranberry farm.
VINCE MEYER can be reached at vince.meyer@brainerddispatch.com or 855-5862.