From Vine to Table, Learn How Cranberries Are Harvested at CranMac Farm in Washington

First-generation cranberry farmers Malcolm and Ardell McPhail have raised children, grown a starter bog into full-time cultivation, and harvested billions of cranberries at CranMac Farm in Ilwaco, Washington. The hard-working couple smile as they reflect on 40 years of family farming and share a look into the annual fall wet harvesting process along the Pacific Northwest's Cranberry Coast. And stick around for Ardell's favorite cranberry recipes, too.

November 10, 2021

By: Rachael Jones

Show: HGTV Handmade

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Photo By: Rachael Jones

Where the Red Cranberries Grow

Long before heaps of sugar, orange peels and tart cranberries are boiled together to make sauce, CranMac Farm in Washington State has a hand in bringing that delicious recipe to your holiday table. Meet Malcolm and Ardell McPhail, first-generation farmers who operate a 100-acre cranberry farm on the sandy soil of the Long Beach Peninsula, who almost became dairy farmers. “We were both extension agents [at Washington State University] and Malcolm [said] he wanted to go into farming,” Ardell recalls with a smile. “He thought of a dairy farm, and I said, 'No way!’ Another extension agent we knew said, ‘The cranberries are good and they’re going to get better.' We got real interested.”

Leaps of Faith

“We quit [our jobs] on the same day in 1985," Malcolm adds. "And it took four years to make sure that we were really able to work on the farm full-time without having jobs … In fact, Ardell went back to teaching. Every morning I would carry her books out to the car and say, ‘Go save the farm!’” Since then, the McPhails have grown their agriculture business into an operation that exports 12 to 14 percent of the state’s cranberry production, all while making time to volunteer with the Pacific Coast Cranberry Research Foundation — an organization they helped to create for the innovation and protection of the cranberry crop.

Statewide Group Project

As long-time farmers in the Ocean Spray Collective, an agriculture cooperative, all the berries from CranMac Farm end up in Ocean Spray products. Every year, the McPhails grow, harvest and deliver more than 2 million pounds of cranberries to Ocean Spray, and the season offically kicks off when all cranberry parties collaborate. “Growers agree on a date for the receiving plant to open,” Ardell says. “And once they’re open, the harvesting season has officially begun."

Time After Time

Cranberries are perennials — surprise! — and can last decades upon decades if cared for properly. These high-maintenance vines only grow in five U.S. states known for sandy soil and coastal, windy weather: Massachusetts, New Jersey, Oregon, Washington and Wisconsin. And that means nearly all 600 acres of cranberries grown along Washington's Cranberry Coast are the exact same shrubby vines that are pruned, nurtured and harvested every season.

Ripe for the Picking

Under the surface, the delicate wetland vines produce a superfruit that's firm, springy and full of color in the fall, usually ready for harvest around the first of October. The traditional color of the fruit comes from sun exposure, so if the berry is somewhat hidden between the vines the end product looks more blush, pink or sometimes even white. “Cranberries are ripe when the seeds inside turn brown,” Ardell says. “And they have little cells in them with air pockets — that’s why they float. It makes them wonderful for water harvesting.”

Wet or Dry Harvest

The most popular harvesting solution relies on water, by way of flooding each cranberry bog with one foot of water. Though some farmers in the U.S. still prefer hand-picking or using a machine called a Furford Picker — imagine a hybrid vacuum-mower with rotating, bladed ladders that pluck berries from the vines. “Wet harvesting gets 98 percent of the fruit off the vine, whereas the dry pickers only get about 85 percent," Ardell explains. "If you have enough water to flood, the wet harvest is much easier. Dry harvesting needs dry weather, whereas we can harvest rain or shine."

Borrowed From Black Lake

Two large pipes extend from the CranMac Farm shop to bring in and channel out water from the nearby lake. But a touch of math is required to fill 100 acres of cranberry bogs all while reserving water, managing flow and carefully staying on schedule. “You almost need a water management person full-time,” Malcolm says laughing. “Our water rights date back to 1908 on Black Lake, which is 35 acres in size. And we have the only water pumps to pump from it into our bogs. So once the water is pumped from the lake, depending on rainfall that season, that batch of water is then plugged and shared around different bogs on our 100-acre farm."

Sharing Is Cranberry Caring

Two 60-horsepower pumps do the job of moving hundreds of gallons of water per minute from Black Lake to the CranMac Farm bogs, providing the main source for wet harvesting and for sharing with others when harvest is complete. "A lot of [other] coastal cranberry growers have water rights on [Black Lake], but they are a mile or more away," Malcolm continues. "So we have to [use and] pump the water out before it’s accessible to them.”

Filling a 4-Acre Bathtub

To flood a cranberry bog, a farm employee heads out at sunrise or late evening during harvest to open up the next scheduled bog's culvert from the main water line, placing a flooding elbow, or curved PVC, onto a 6-inch riser. Water then rushes from the main line into the bog, slowing filling it with lake water and causing the berries to naturally float. It would take about 16 hours to fill the bog with 1 foot of water.

Primary Protection

Once the bogs are filled and flooded, the pumps will continue to provide water via solid-set sprinklers for frost protection in the chilly autumn months. In the spring and summer, the sprinklers will be used for irrigation and weed control as the vines begin to bloom and wildlife attempt to work against growing efforts. But water isn't the only tool needed for cranberry collection.

Frankenstein Farm Equipment

According to National Geographic, the United States sets the course and leads the perennial pack in cranberry production, but the daily tools of the trade aren't really all that common. Turns out, most large cranberry machinery is handmade, pieced together or hand-me-down due to rarity. “There’s no real company that makes cranberry equipment,” Ardell says. “You can’t just go to John Deere and buy that stuff. It’s all kind of ‘Rube Goldberg’ [equipment] and [when you buy a bog] you take over and repair what the former owner has built for himself.”

A Little Offbeat

Once the bogs are flooded, the bit you don’t see on that recognizable, sunny Ocean Spray TV commercial is the machine that really makes the harvest magic happen: the beater. “It’s kind of a terrible name," Malcolm says laughing, "but it’s a machine that has a rotating reel on the front." Ardell adds, "We drive the beater around the flooded bog and the water reel knocks the berries off the vines by stirring up the water." The berries pop off the vines and float to the top of the bog creating a bright red hue in the dark blue water.

Friendly Family Feud

Right before a squall comes through, Malcolm joins Ardell on his beater as they work minutes ahead of an incoming storm. “Ardell started beating [cranberries] three or four years ago,” Malcolm recalls. “And she has a cranberry beater with her name on it.”

“Well, he has a beater that happens to have a cab on it — and my beater doesn’t have a cab so when it rains I get wet," Ardell laughs in playful jest. Malcolm adds, “Well, I wanted to put a back and a cover on hers, but she likes to stand up when she’s driving so don’t feel sorry for her." The two operate one day ahead of the cranberry corralling crews, who step foot into the flooded bogs around sunrise the next morning.

Weather With You

Ardell flips a switch to turn off the frost protection sprinklers as the incoming storm is anticpated to bring more rainfall to the already flooded bog, potentially raising the water levels well beyond one foot. Both Ardell and Malcolm keep a watchful eye on the changing weather and work together during harvest to manage the daily caretaking of the bogs, sometimes even into the early morning hours.

Stormy Weather Preferred

The CranMac Farm wet harvesting team arrives bright and early the next morning donning chest waders, raincoats, hats and gloves. For most outdoor work professions, rainy weather isn't an ideal situation, but cranberry farmers thrive in the rain. In fact, heavy rain and coastal winds actually help to speed up the manual harvesting process for crews. “Our employees love the wind,” Ardell says smiling. “It’s better to have a stormy day than a sunny day sometimes because you get wind that blows the berries to one direction.” Malcolm adds, “In other words, you’ve got all this open water they won't have to wade through pushing berries.”

Gather 'Round

Painted yellow and white wooden boards with long rope handles called booms are used to corral the berries. These heavy wooden booms are pulled around by bog workers to create a perimeter for the floating berries. Once the perimeter is set, the berries closest to the truck get a little extra air time.

Upward Bound

“We call it an elevator," Ardell says, "Others call it a conveyer. It’s an escalator-type of machine that sits down in the water and carries the berries up to the bins on the truck.” The bouncing red berries are paddled and pushed onto the lowest rung of the moving elevator for a quick trip to the top.

A Different Kind of Paddleboarding

Rhythmic splashing of water coordinates with workers pushing millions of floating cranberries from the outer edge of the bog toward the truck and elevator using wooden paddles. “I think of [the crew] as cranberry janitors,” Ardell says with a chuckle.

Weights and Balances

Simultaneously, as the berries in the bog are being manually corralled and pushed toward the elevator, another role in the wet harvest is equally important: the leveler. Thousands of berries wait for no one as they bounce up the metal steps of the cranking elevator stairs and pour forcefully down a green canvas shoot into the farm truck bins. A crew member uses a rake to quickly spread the heaps of overflowing berries into one bin or another almost like a game — a game that costs money if berries dump to the ground.

6,000-Pound Delivery

Once all bins on the truck are filled with cranberries, the CranMac Farm truck makes the short drive over to the Ocean Spray plant to offload a batch of the daily harvest. “One thousand pounds of cranberries fit into each bin on the truck,” Ardell explains. "So that's 6,000 pounds of cranberries in one truck load." Upon arrival, forklifts remove the bins of berries to be weighed and processed. Then the empty truck returns like clockwork for the next load corralled by workers in waders. The trucks run several times a day during harvest.

All in a Month's Work

The wet harvesting crew operates as a mobile unit, with the elevator, booms, paddles and rakes all stashed nicely in the back of the farm truck, ready to drive a few hundred yards over to the next flooded bog for use. The entire cranberry collection process takes about 2 to 3 hours per bog, and the CranMac crew will harvest a couple of bogs each day depending on weather conditions. "On 122 acres, counting our son's bogs, we produced about 22,000 barrels [of cranberries] last year,” Ardell says. “And a barrel is 100 pounds of berries — so we delivered 2,200,000 pounds to Ocean Spray.”

A Cranberry a Day

Eighty million berries harvested in 40 years time would make anyone think cranberry consumption at the McPhail household would be low. That's not the case. “After I meet with [our crew] every morning, I have my oatmeal, my cranberry juice and my coffee and I read the paper,” Malcolm says. “This is my routine at 85 years old.” Ardell laughs and says, “Every day, almost. We love cranberries.”

Nothing To Waste

Ardell reserves a little extra from harvest each year for friends, family and her favorite cranberry dishes. Here, she pours cleaned cranberries collected from Ocean Spray into a vintage wooden crate to air dry in their working barn. Once the cranberries are dry to the touch they're ready for cooking or freezer storage. “Ardell makes cranberry sauce throughout the year,” Malcolm says. “She probably has 20 gallons in the freezer.”

Ardell's Cranberry Sauce and Chicken Ruby

Try Ardell’s go-to fresh cranberry sauce recipe or her savory chicken ruby this Thanksgiving. To make Ardell's cranberry sauce, you'll need 4 cups fresh or frozen cranberries, 1-1/2 to 1-3/4 cup sugar, 1 cup orange juice and 1 teaspoon grated orange peel (optional). Stir all the ingredients together in a large pan. Bring to a boil and then simmer for 10 minutes. Stir a few times while simmering.

To make Ardell's Chicken Ruby you will need 2 1/2 to 3 pound chicken, 1/3 cup flour, 1 teaspoon salt, 4 tablespoons butter, 1-1/2 cups of fresh cranberries, 1/2 cup sugar, 1/4 cup chopped onion (optional), 3/4 cup orange juice, 1 teaspoon grated orange peel, 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon and 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger.

Coat the chicken with a mixture of the flour and salt. Brown the chicken in melted butter in a skillet, turning once. Meanwhile, combine remaining ingredients. Pour over chicken and bring to a boil. Cover and cook slowly 35-40 minutes or until chicken is tender. Makes 4 servings.