00:00 hello welcome to Kate's Ag today i am
00:02 in Ontario Canada i'm here at Muskoka
00:05 Lakes Farm and winery home of Johnston
00:07 cranberries so i'm going to be showing
00:09 you a cranberry operation
00:13 [Music]
00:22 here there are cranberries as you can
00:24 see and they are dry harvesting them
00:27 right now i'm here with Justin at
00:29 Muskoka Lakes Farm and Winery and he's
00:31 going to be explaining a little bit
00:32 about dry picking of the cranberries
00:35 thank you so this is dry harvesting of
00:38 the cranberries yeah and there are
00:39 different types of harvesting yeah
00:42 there's uh dry picking and uh
00:44 and usually we'll flood the bed too
00:47 and then we'll pick it with a different
00:48 type of machine there okay and what is
00:51 this machine called it's a dry picker
00:53 there's an actual
00:55 name for it a dry picker yeah so it kind
00:58 of scrapes the cranberries off the
01:00 ground and moves it on a conveyor belt
01:02 up into this bag and drops it off in the
01:05 bag where do the bags go after this the
01:07 bags go into a tote and then they go off
01:10 into to the warehouse for uh to de-grass
01:14 it wow
01:15 yeah that's wonderful so this is a
01:18 self-propelled self-propelled yet so you
01:21 just have burlap bags
01:23 and you carry a couple of extra
01:25 and then once it's full you set it on
01:27 the ground yeah and somebody will pick
01:29 it up
01:30 that's wonderful
01:32 and do you just go walking speed
01:34 [Music]
01:36 can you go too fast
01:42 [Music]
01:49 so the cranberries will have to go to a
01:51 deep grasser after they are picked out
01:54 of the field because the cranberry
01:56 picker doesn't separate the cranberries
01:58 from the plant
02:00 [Music]
02:07 wow that's a full bag of cranberries
02:08 yeah i don't know how much that weighs
02:11 maybe 60 pounds
02:12 this is where the cranberry picker just
02:14 went what do you do with the cranberries
02:15 left in the field
02:17 after this process we'll be uh flooding
02:20 it oh so you dry pick all of the fields
02:22 and then you flood them yeah
02:25 whatever's left yeah
02:27 then we'll bring in a different machine
02:28 to get whatever's left
02:34 that's incredible well thank you so much
02:36 so this is the cranberry field they are
02:39 dry picking and then they will flood it
02:41 to get the rest of the cranberries left
02:43 over now i'm here with Robin at the
02:45 cranberry plunge and you're going to be
02:48 explaining a little bit about the plunge
02:49 yeah so this is the cranberry plunge we
02:52 dry harvested these cranberries what are
02:54 the different harvesting processes for
02:55 cranberries so we do dry picking
02:58 which is a long process it's not
03:00 necessarily ideal but it's we get a
03:02 higher grade of berries um because the
03:04 water is a little bit harder on them
03:06 they do tend to absorb water it's uh our
03:08 form of wet harvesting so it we have to
03:11 flood the beds to do that and then we
03:13 also have a beading machine to knock off
03:16 any berries that got missed in any other
03:18 process that's incredible and i was just
03:20 over at the dry picking process and i
03:22 noticed the dry picker didn't get a lot
03:24 of the cranberries what happens to those
03:26 um so that's what we brought up here
03:30 because the dry harvesters leave a large
03:32 percentage of berries behind so we flood
03:34 the beds afterwards and go around with
03:36 the beading machine and then we bring
03:38 them here and we corral them as you can
03:40 see in the background wow that's amazing
03:42 thank you so much yeah no worries i am
03:44 in the cranberry plunge right now with
03:46 all of the cranberries this is what they
03:48 look like up close and they were
03:50 harvested by the dry picking method
03:52 which you just saw a moment ago
03:54 [Music]
04:00 it's sort of like all the cranberry
04:01 commercials you see on tv
04:03 of the people standing in the cranberry
04:05 marsh i'm wearing a full suit so that i
04:07 don't get wet this is an up-close view
04:10 of the cranberries it's very cool when
04:13 we wet harvest we do flood the beds
04:14 before we pick because the cranberries
04:17 have little um air pockets in them that
04:19 help them float and it just kind of um
04:21 helps to detangle them from the vines
04:23 okay so it's easier for the machine to
04:26 break through the vines and when you
04:27 decide to wet harvest rather than dry
04:29 harvest uh well we dry harvest earlier
04:31 on in the season because it's uh we have
04:33 better weather um we can't harvest with
04:36 any moisture in the bed because that's
04:38 not really the idea of dry harvest yeah
04:40 do you assess the field and then
04:41 determine whether they should be dry
04:43 harvested or wet harvested the dry
04:45 harvest is for the wine so we get white
04:48 cranberries that you can see depending
04:50 on the use of the cranberry uh yeah so
04:52 it depends on the use of the cranberry
04:54 and
04:55 it's for fresh fruit as well so once we
04:58 are done dry harvesting then we don't
05:00 have any more fresh fruit it's all
05:01 frozen oh wow that's incredible yeah and
05:04 how do you flood the beds or what is the
05:06 process of wet harvesting the
05:08 cranberries well our beds that we
05:09 harvest
05:10 have inlet and outlet gates so the water
05:13 just flows in through culverts
05:14 underneath the
05:16 dikes that we drive around this bed in
05:18 particular we had to flood with
05:20 a pump because it's an old testing bog
05:23 that we don't use for testing anymore
05:25 they haven't used it since i started
05:27 working here
05:28 um but we used it we use it for the
05:30 plunge now because when we had it on an
05:32 actual cranberry bed that we do grow
05:34 cranberries on
05:36 the foot traffic did a lot of damage to
05:38 the vines so okay it's better down here
05:40 do you flood the bed after the dry
05:42 picking uh get the rest of the
05:43 cranberries yes we do um because the dry
05:46 pickers leave a lot leave a large
05:47 percentage of berries behind so we go
05:50 around with a beating machine and then
05:52 those berries will be uh frozen yeah oh
05:54 wow that's awesome or well
05:57 we're using them completely for the
05:58 plunge yeah that's incredible what's
06:00 your favorite part of cranberry harvest
06:02 um
06:03 definitely
06:04 wet picking it's it's a lot of fun uh
06:07 dry picking is a lot more labor
06:08 intensive so it's it's very tiring um it
06:11 does have it's it's um pros and cons but
06:13 uh wet picking is very fun it's it's
06:16 i mean not a lot of people would agree
06:18 but falling in it's it's not all that
06:19 bad so
06:21 it just adds to the experience yes for
06:23 sure yeah and then dry picking you use a
06:26 self-propelled kind of picker what would
06:28 be the machine you use for wet
06:30 harvesting um it's called the getsinger
06:32 retracto toothpicker
06:34 people love
06:35 trying to say that
06:37 um it's it's a bit wider than the
06:39 um dry pickers so it's and it's a bit
06:41 more efficient and the berries go into
06:44 boats and then they're lifted out and
06:45 what time of year is cranberry harvest
06:47 usually and how long does it last um
06:49 well we started harvesting at the
06:51 beginning of September we started dry
06:53 harvest okay or well more the middle of
06:55 September
06:56 and then wet picking and the rest of
06:58 harvest usually goes until late October
07:00 early November depending on the season
07:02 and depending on the uh volume of
07:04 berries that we get yeah and this year
07:06 we have a lot so we might be out here
07:08 pretty late but we'll see and
07:09 cranberries are very labor intensive
07:11 compared to other crops yeah it is here
07:14 is the cranberry plunge hello again
07:17 great thank you how are you doing good
07:19 just got a jam here
07:21 so this is called a cranberry picker yep
07:24 and it's just had a jam so do you just
07:27 pull out the cranberry plant yeah some
07:29 of the vines there it might be too long
07:32 and they get jammed up in there
07:34 so the picker will just go through and
07:36 kind of scoop them off the vine are they
07:38 still attached to the vines right now
07:40 are they starting to drop no they're
07:42 still attached so you only dry pick as
07:44 many fresh cranberries as you need and
07:46 then you'll wet harvest the rest yeah
07:48 and also the ones that are left behind
07:49 in this field do you ever not dry pick a
07:51 field and just wet harvest yeah how many
07:53 fields would you say or how much do you
07:55 dry pick compared to wet harvest so you
07:57 wet harvest all of them basically i
07:59 guess we do yeah yeah how many machines
08:02 would you usually have going in one
08:04 field
08:04 two one depends on how many people we
08:07 have what has been the evolution of the
08:09 cranberry picker is this kind of what it
08:12 would have looked like 50 years ago 50
08:14 years ago maybe
08:16 they they actually have like old rakes
08:18 and stuff like that too really rakes oh
08:21 yeah
08:22 come in the field and have like type of
08:24 uh
08:25 almost like a basket type rake that's
08:27 awesome is this the most efficient way
08:29 to do it i don't think so
08:31 is there any other machinery that could
08:33 be used to pick cranberries like this
08:35 yeah there's a bigger almost like
08:37 something like this but it's
08:39 almost three times the width oh wow
08:42 yeah it's got wheels and sit on it
08:44 awesome but this is kind of the old
08:46 school way of doing it and then you just
08:48 attach the burlap bags how many bags
08:49 would you usually get per pack per pass
08:52 roughly around just over 10 10 bags yeah
08:55 and then you go and get more yeah yeah
08:58 we usually have them sitting on the side
09:00 are cranberries measured in bushels or
09:02 in pounds pounds okay
09:05 [Music]
09:13 so here's a cranberry bag these are the
09:16 cranberries that were just harvested
09:21 [Music]
09:24 after the cranberries are harvested in
09:26 the field they will be taken to the
09:28 warehouse to be de-grassed and that is
09:30 because all of the cranberry vines end
09:33 up in the burlap bags and it's not like
09:36 combining wheat in Montana where
09:38 everything is separated out cranberries
09:40 are a lot more labor-intensive oh no it
09:43 clogged oh yeah what do you do in this
09:45 situation i'll just try to get the
09:49 vines out get the vines out
09:51 here are some of the cranberries on the
09:53 vines as you can see and then they'll
09:55 just be picked off
09:57 with the cranberry picker and then that
10:00 is the little four-wheeler and cart that
10:03 hauls the burlap bags away out of the
10:05 field i'm here with Murray Johnston who
10:08 is a cranberry farmer here in Ontario
10:10 Canada can you explain a little bit
10:12 about your amazing cranberry farm
10:14 heritage and history yeah sure
10:17 the farm was started it was kind of
10:19 about a story about a girl my dad um was
10:22 in high school and met a girl in Ottawa
10:24 and uh her father had a cranberry farm
10:26 and uh he worked there
10:28 for summer job for a couple years and
10:30 really enjoyed the life and uh
10:33 decided uh that he wanted to study
10:35 agriculture enrolled in McGill at uh
10:38 McDonald college and got his degree in
10:40 agriculture and uh he and his brother
10:42 came here and to Muskoka which is where
10:44 his uh girlfriend's
10:46 father had a farm and uh started his own
10:49 with the help of George Mollard his
10:51 girlfriend's father that's wonderful
10:53 what year was the farm started um
10:55 it was the late 40s he worked for George
10:57 Mollard and then they bought the farm in
10:59 1950 and
11:01 planted the first viness in 1953 when
11:03 they finished university so your oldest
11:05 vines at this farm would be 1953.
that's 11:08
right yeah yeah they've been and they're 11:10
still producing very well actually 11:11
considering how old they are so that 11:13
once you plant a 11:15
bog it takes about five years to 11:17
establish but they'll produce for 11:19
for there's known blogs over 100 years 11:21
old in Massachusetts and Wisconson 11:24
wow do you notice a higher production 11:26
with the newer varieties of cranberries 11:28
actually there is some new varieties 11:30
which are replacing some of the old 11:32
traditional varieties the hybrids and 11:35
they are definitely better in production 11:37
and they have good color and 11:38
more disease resistance 11:40
the old varieties still produce better 11:42
than they did in the old days uh in the 11:44
old days you know 50 barrels an acre was 11:47
a pretty good crop now 11:48
cranberry growers are seeing 150 to 200 11:51
on the old varieties and some of the new 11:53
varieties are up to 400 barrels and 11:54
acres wow yeah yeah it's pretty uh 11:57
pretty impressive barrel is 100 pounds 11:59
oh okay so yeah 12:01
it's like 40 000 pounds an acre that's 12:04
incredible how do cranberries grow um 12:07
the cranberries they um they're a 12:09
terrestrial plant and they grow in long 12:11
vines i should show you one um 12:14
they grow in a long vine with uprights 12:16
and they grow three to four inches a 12:17
year on the uprights but the vines will 12:20
grow up to six feet to spread once you 12:22
plant them we take cuttings and we plant 12:24
them on the ground and then they spread 12:26
and fill in 12:27
the voids and eventually create this mat 12:30
of 12:31
vines and then the uprights will grow 12:32
every year and there's a bud that's set 12:34
in 12:35
August 12:36
for next year's crop so as we're 12:38
harvesting the actual bud is there for 12:39
next year's crops we have to protect 12:41
that be very careful on the vines even 12:43
though we drive on them you have to be 12:44
very 12:45
very gentle on them and then 12:47
that bud will develop in the spring 12:50
uh and each bud will you can see three 12:54
to five um 12:56
flowers on it and uh if you get you know 12:58
three or four cranberries on each 13:00
upright that's a good problem that's 13:02
very fascinating yeah 13:04
so it's uh but yeah they um and they 13:07
growing what you would call a bog you or 13:10
you have them in a bog right right and 13:12
then 13:13
you fill them with water just to harvest 13:15
that's right so they grow well drained 13:17
during the growing season and then we 13:18
flood them a couple times a year and one 13:20
of them is at harvest time 13:22
good morning 13:25
yeah so we flood them um just at harvest 13:27
time for uh the vines in the spring in 13:29
the fall and the winter can be flooded 13:31
for several weeks while they're dormant 13:33
without too much damage but uh in the 13:36
summertime they don't like to be flooded 13:38
while they're in bloom so 13:40
we keep them drained um during the 13:41
growing season and then uh the other 13:43
times of the year we'll flood them 13:44
depending on we use it for frost 13:46
protection we flood them for harvest and 13:48
we flood them also for winter protection 13:51
we form a layer of ice on top of the 13:53
vines in the winter time we flood them 13:55
two or three times to get a good layer 13:56
of ice and then 13:58
we drain out underneath the ice and then 14:00
that keeps them dormant for the winter 14:02
that's really great what is the growing 14:04
season and timeline of the cranberries 14:06
so the growing season typically starts 14:08
um 14:10
in late April early May, the buds will 14:12
start to expand from last year and 14:15
they'll grow uh that three inches 14:17
probably by the 14:19
sort of middle of June and then you'll 14:21
late June you'll start to see the 14:22
flowers coming out 14:24
and the bees do their their their 14:26
business and pollinate them over the 14:28
summer 14:29
and then 14:30
and then by the first of uh like about 14:32
the middle of June or July i mean uh 14:35
you'll start to see what we call 14:36
pea-sized cranberries they're little 14:38
green cranberries and then they'll 14:40
develop 14:41
through the fall and then 14:43
some of the earliest varieties are ready 14:44
to harvest mid-September and then in uh 14:48
mid-October they're all already ready to 14:51
harvest and we try to get the harvest 14:53
done by the end of October as the ice 14:55
starts to snow and ice starts to fall 14:57
and becomes more difficult and frost 14:59
protection becomes more challenging so 15:02
yeah so that's uh that's our growing 15:03
season 15:04
and then in the winter we uh leave them 15:07
dormant through November 15:10
and flood them around Christmas time and 15:12
then uh we actually bring honeybees in 15:14
in the summertime we have a fence to 15:16
keep the bears out not to keep the bees 15:18
in and 15:19
people ask us how do we keep the bees in 15:21
this one anyway but we do have a good 15:23
population of native bumble bees that do 15:26
most the work 15:27
but because of the 15:29
natural environment their populations 15:31
can come and go so we bring the 15:33
honeybees in as an insurance policy that 15:35
makes sure that we get good pollination 15:37
good pollination is really critical they 15:39
did some studies back 15:40
100 years ago and realized that the more 15:43
seeds in a cranberry 15:44
the more the bigger the cranberry and 15:46
the bigger your crop will be 15:48
and uh you can see 20 to 30 percent 15:50
increase with good pollination because 15:52
every time a bee visits it drops a 15:55
pollen grain 15:57
on the on the stigma of the flower and 16:00
then it goes and creates one seed so 16:02
each pollen grain creates a seed and in 16:04
a cranberry there's 16:06
upwards to 20 plus seeds in a berry and 16:09
if you can get 10 or 20 percent more 16:12
you'll get a 10 or 20 larger berry 16:14
and that's really important yeah and 16:16
then we also take the honey off the bees 16:18
and and our beekeeper takes it and 16:20
bottles it and we sell it in the store 16:22
so for everybody's enjoyment yes 16:25
definitely that's amazing what are your 16:27
top cranberry products or what is the 16:29
favorite 16:30
um we sell a lot of fresh cranberries 16:32
here at harvest time but 16:35
we have a line of preserves that my 16:36
mother started making back in uh back in 16:39
the day and and she uh she no longer 16:41
does that she's too old but we uh use 16:43
her recipes and uh 16:45
so sauce and jams and that kind of thing 16:48
and chutney we have chutney which is 16:49
very popular we also have a pure 16:52
cranberry juice it's unadulterated it's 16:54
just like almost like lemon juice it's 16:56
uh oh wow 16:57
single strength full strength most 16:59
cranberry cocktail is only 27 but our 17:02
juice is 100 cranberry juice um so 17:05
that's very popular and uh and of course 17:07
our wines now are extremely popular we 17:10
started making wine 20 years ago and to 17:12
our cranberries and uh it's taken off 17:14
like crazy we have uh wine cider 17:17
spritzers all that kind of stuff they're 17:18
very popular that's really great 17:21
do most of your cranberries stay on the 17:23
farm and for your products yeah we we 17:25
harvest um 17:27
ourselves we harvest up to a half a 17:29
million pounds oh wow 17:31
and uh about a third of that we sell as 17:34
fresh cranberries at right at harvest 17:36
time and to some of the local markets 17:38
and the other two thirds we put in the 17:40
freezer for processing and at least half 17:42
of that we bring back here and turn into 17:44
our own products the other um half of 17:47
that will go to our processor partners 17:49
that we partner with to help us press 17:51
cranberries or 17:53
you know bakeries and that kind of stuff 17:54
that we work with so yeah that's amazing 17:58
how big is the cranberry farm relatively 18:00
we're a small farm we only have 27 acres 18:02
in production um but our wineries uh 18:05
really taken off and it's a big part of 18:07
our our production we do quite a bit of 18:08
tourism activity as well so we have um 18:11
three three experiences this time of 18:13
year the plunge where you go in the in 18:15
the hip waders and you go into the 18:17
cranberries yes which i showed you 18:18
earlier in the video and it was 18:20
incredibly fun so if you're ever in 18:22
Ontario Canada you definitely have to 18:24
come to Muskoka Lakes Farm and Winery 18:26
and do some of the tours yeah so and 18:29
then we do the wine tasting and the 18:31
wagon rides 18:32
um you know all sorts of experience in 18:34
the winter time we we started doing a 18:36
skating trail a 1.2 kilometer skating 18:38
trail so it's all ties in with the 18:39
winery and the on-farm experience we 18:42
want people to come here and enjoy the 18:44
outdoors but also 18:46
learn something and 18:48
you know taste cranberries and 18:50
really embrace the whole experience yes 18:53
and how cranberries are grown which i 18:55
think a lot of people don't know so it's 18:57
incredible to be able to eat a cranberry 18:59
and see the process of growing them and 19:01
harvesting them yeah so 19:03
it's fun to share that with people yes 19:06
and of course by a wonderful family 19:08
operation yeah my uh which is the best 19:11
part my son North and my wife Wendy and 19:14
myself uh run the farm now i have uh 19:16
four boys i still have three uh in 19:18
school but uh the other uh North is the 19:21
oldest and he's helping us now running 19:23
our winery and doing our production so 19:25
yeah it's it's been a great family 19:27
experience that's amazing 19:29
well thank you so much i really 19:31
appreciate it and it was a pleasure 19:33
touring your cranberry farm that's great 19:35
Kate its nice meeting you thank you so much 19:37
for watching today's video make sure to 19:39
like and subscribe okay bye 19:43
[Music]