The Cranberry Harvest Celebration Is Back
Photo provided by A.D. Makepeace Company
At the intersection of fall fun and New England’s autumn bounty are not pumpkins, but rather, cranberries. The Massachusetts state berry is tangier than fall’s favorite fruit—the apple—and even has a whole harvest celebration dedicated to it.
The 2015 Cranberry Harvest Celebration is coming back to the A.D. Makepeace Company Headquarters at Tihonet Village on Columbus Day weekend. If you’re interested in seeing what it’s like to step into an Ocean Spray Commercial, this is the time. (There isn’t really a commercial being filmed, but the event is co-sponsored by Ocean Spray, so it’s almost the same.)
Visitors are invited to tour the fields of the largest cranberry grower in the world, see demonstrations of both the wet and dry cranberry harvests, and to witness the berries being corralled in the flooded bogs. There’s a viewing platform to see the bogs from above, and helicopter tours will be offered for an additional fee.
“It’s a way to show the public what the cranberry harvest is all about in a way that is both education and fun,” says Linda Burke, A.D. Makepeace’s VP of marketing of communications. “Growers in the bog explain what’s going on at any given moment. It’s very interactive—you can go up to anyone with an orange vest and say ‘Hey, what’s that?’”
Festivities include cooking demonstrations, paddleboat rides on Tihonet Pond, and live bluegrass music. Festival-goers can munch on oysters from Big Rock Oyster of Harwich and sample cranberry-flavored beer, dubbed the Grateful Harvest Brew, from Harpoon Brewery. More than 50 vendors will set up displays of handcrafted goods, and pumpkin painting and train rides will be available for kids.
The 2015 Cranberry Harvest Celebration festival takes place Saturday and Sunday, October 10 and 11, 10 a.m.-4 p.m., rain or shine, at the A.D. Makepeace Company Headquarters at Tihonet Village, 158 Tihonet Road, Wareham.
Tickets are $10 for adults, $5 for seniors and military, free for kids under 7. Parking is free. Visit ADmakepeace.com for more more information.
