WC Wisconsin News

It's looking like a good year for cranberries in Wisconsin, again.

For the 27th year in a row, Wisconsin is expected to lead the U.S. in cranberry production, growing 60% of cranberries on earth, WKBT reported. The Wisconsin crop usually brings in about $1 billion each year, the station reported.

“We have good land for cranberry production," Allison Jonjak, a cranberry outreach specialist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison extension service, told the station. "We have growers who are really fantastic at maximizing and making the best of what they’ve got. We also have a really cold winter which protects us from disease.”

Cranberries are harvested in October or even earlier.

"Some of the fresh fruit growers started picking fruit for Canadian Thanksgiving about two weeks ago," Tom Lochner, Wisconsin State Cranberry Growers Association executive director, told WLUK.

In Canada, Thanksgiving is celebrated the second Monday in October, the story said.

This year's crop may be down slightly because of a cold snap last the fall, Lochner said. He predicts Wisconsin may produce about 4.9 million barrels of cranberries this season. The crop provides jobs for 4,000 residents, he said.

Farmer Wade Brockman is expecting an average yield this year.

"I grew up on this," he told WLUK. "I grew up on my grandfather's marsh, and I'm a third generation grower, and this is all I've ever done, and all I know how to do, and I love it."