A Colonial Flavor in the Cranberry Capital

Here in America’s unofficial cranberry capital, growers know what “bogged down” means. Particularly from Labor Day through October, when hip-booted growers (also known as “bog operators”) splash around in a crimson sea, rounding up the “red gold.”

One thing you’ll learn right off: the cranberry is more than Massachusetts’ chief crop. It’s an event--a colorful bit of Americana that’s honored by a museum, a festival, two wineries and a vintage train ride through the world’s largest cranberry plantation.

You might say cranberries are more American than apple pie. Being one of three fruits native to America (others are blueberries and Concord grapes), cranberries made life a little easier for the Pilgrims, who, it is believed, ate them during the first Thanksgiving.

For the whole juicy saga, from pre-Colonial days to the present, visit the Cranberry World Museum, a 10-minute stroll from Plymouth Rock. The museum, created in 1977 by the Ocean Spray Cranberry Co., attracts more than 300,000 visitors a year.

Colonial Lore

Housed in a picturesque, glass-enclosed structure overlooking Plymouth Bay, the museum offers films, exhibits, artifacts, cooking tips and refreshments. Most visitors leave armed with enough lore to be the best conversationalist at any Thanksgiving dinner table.

For young and old alike the museum is a good preparatory visit for the bogs, which one sees in all their fiery-toned splendor from roadsides around Plymouth. Massachusetts 58 and 28 are good choices, but you’ll also find bogs along most back roads in southeastern Massachusetts.

This is the heart of America’s cranberry country, which is about an hour’s drive south of Boston. With about 12,000 acres under cultivation, Massachusetts produces about half the nation’s yearly crop. (Wisconsin, runner-up, yields 40%.)

Autumn is a busy time for these bog operators, so don’t expect a guided tour. From your roadside vantage point you can view the wet harvesting, the most common as well as the most interesting technique.

The bog is flooded about a foot deep. Then a water reel--a machine resembling a giant eggbeater--churns up the water to dislodge the berries from their tangled evergreen vines. The fruit floats to the surface, where it is corralled by workers and conveyed to trucks.

Berries picked wet are used in processed foods. It was sauce that got this berry business rolling, thanks to a practical New England lawyer and bog owner named Marcus L. Urann.

In the early 1900s, when there was no sophisticated refrigeration, cranberries that weren’t sold fresh ended up rotting.

Processed Sauce

Horrified at such waste, Urann developed processed cranberry sauce, and in 1912 founded the Ocean Spray Preserving Co. In 1930 his company merged with two others to form the current Ocean Spray Cranberries Inc.

For those who don’t want to watch from a roadside, there’s a more comfortable way to see a bog. That’s from aboard Edaville Railroad’s antique trains in South Carver, a 20-minute drive south of Plymouth.

The narrow-gauge railway was established in 1946 to haul cranberries from the bogs of Ellis D. Atwood, a railway buff whose initials gave the railway its name.

Today the railway carries visitors on 30-minute, 5 1/2-mile rides through the 1,800-acre plantation. It is the largest cranberry plantation in the world and includes some of the oldest bogs in the country.

In late September and early October (next weekend and Sept. 24-25, Oct. 1-2 and 8-9), the Edaville Railroad grounds are also the site of the Massachusetts Cranberry Festival, which holds competitions, musical entertainment and cooking contests.

Wineries Celebrate

In Plymouth, two wineries celebrate the cranberry in their own way. In a former berry screening house in the middle of a 10-acre cranberry bog, Plymouth Colony winery offers free tours and tastings of its Cranberry Grande, Cranberry Foch and Cranberry Raspberry.

Also in the village of Plymouth and near the Rock, David Tower Winery is turning out a cranberry-apple Rose that has become a best seller.

You can judge the wine, because Tower invites everyone to 40-minute tours and tastes and includes a Chardonnay and a whimsically named Plymouth Rock Red.

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The Cranberry World Museum in Plymouth is open from April 1 to Nov. 30, daily from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. (including Thanksgiving). Admission is free. Information: (508) 747-2350.

The Edaville Railroad runs until Oct. 31, Monday through Friday, 10:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., weekends and holidays, 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.; Nov. 4 to Jan. 8, 1989, Monday through Friday, 4 to 9 p.m., weekends 2 to 9 p.m.

Admission is $8.50 for adults, $5.50 for children 3-12, $6 for seniors. It’s off Massachusetts 58 in South Carver. Information: (508) 866-4526.

Cranberry Harvest Days take place on four autumn weekends: next Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 24-25, Oct. 1-2 and Oct. 8-9. Admission is $8.50 for adults, $5.50 for children 3-12. The festival is held on the grounds of the Edaville Railroad. Information: (508) 866-4526.

Commonwealth Winery, 22 Lothrop St., Plymouth, is open Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sundays, noon to 5 p.m. Information: (508) 746-4940.

Plymouth Colony Winery, Pinewood Road (off Massachusetts 44), Plymouth, is open year-round to Dec. 24, Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sunday, noon to 5 p.m., and Dec. 26 to March 31, weekends and holidays, noon to 5 p.m. Information: (508) 747-3334.

If you’re planning to visit Plymouth for Thanksgiving, be sure to book lodging in advance. Most of Plymouth’s many historic homes and museums will be open.

On Thanksgiving Day there will be a costumed Pilgrim procession to services at the First Parish Church. The Plymouth Chamber of Commerce sponsors a traditional Thanksgiving turkey feast at 11 a.m. at Memorial Hall.

For more information, write to the Plymouth Area Chamber of Commerce, 91 Samoset St., Plymouth, Mass. 02360, or call (508) 746-3377.