Photo: The Bog Riverside Cranberry Farm
Each fall fields around Vancouver light up in brilliant red as the cranberries are harvested. Here are four ways to experience this spectacular sight.
How Cranberries are Harvested in Vancouver
Did you know that most Craisins start in Vancouver? Local farmers send 97% of their cranberries to Ocean Spray Cooperative in Washington State, which makes delicious dried cranberries (called craisins) out of them.
In the wild, cranberries grow in wetlands. Today, cranberries are cultivated in specially prepared fields with raised dykes around the edges. The berries grow in sandy soil throughout the year. When it is time to harvest each fall, farmers flood the fields. The buoyant cranberries float to the top where they are pushed to the edge of the field, then pumped or scooped out of the water for cleaning and sorting.
Fort Langley Cranberry Festival
Each October, Fort Langley hosts a Cranberry Festival. In 2023, the annual event takes place on Saturday, October 7th and includes a pancake breakfast, food and craft vendors as well cranberries for sale.
Photo: Fort Langley Cranberry Festival/Fort Langley Project
Take a Cranberry Farm Tour
Sign up for a farm tour at The Bog Riverside Cranberry Farm in Langley or Hopcott Farms in Pitt Meadows. You can take a self-guided walk around the perimeter of the farm to see the cranberries being harvested. Or sign-up for the Cranberry Plunge where you will put on a pair of waders and jump into a field of floating cranberries for the ultimate photo op.
Photo: The Bog Riverside Cranberry Farm
Walk or Bike Past Cranberry Fields
You can walk or bike past cranberry fields on the Pitt River Regional Greenway. This wide gravel path takes you on top of dykes beside the Pitt and Fraser Rivers in Pitt Meadows. If you time your visit for late September through early November, you might get to see the cranberry harvest. Be sure to stay on the path and out of the way of all farm machinery.
Biking along the Pitt River Regional Greenway during cranberry harvest. Photo: Taryn Eyton/Happiest Outdoors
Get Airborne
If you are catching a flight in or out of Vancouver in the fall, book a window seat and keep a sharp eye out for bright red fields below you. There are several farms in Richmond near the airport. Or book a flightseeing tour to see Vancouver from above. Your pilot can help point out the cranberry bogs alongside other spectacular landmarks.
#BCHwy91 in #richmond seeing some volume through the s-curve. This is why:#visualdistraction #cranberryharvest @CityNewsVAN pic.twitter.com/3U2Q5myTZl
— Danger On Air (@DangerOnAir) October 18, 2021
