We are celebrating Thanksgiving with a stop at Yellow Point Cranberry Farm in Lady Smith on Vancouver Island. Owner Grant Keefer, showed us around the farm. He informed us of the process of growing and harvesting the berries.
LISTEN: Savory Road Radio Feature
Yellow Point Cranberry Website
COPY: Welcome to the Savory Road. Are you thinking about buying cranberries? Of course not, you’re probably sticking Styrofoam tombstones in your lawn and hanging yarn spider webs. It’s going to be weeks before your thoughts lead to that can of jellied cranberry sauce – you know – with the perma-ring around the middle? Thanksgiving is several weeks away, but we found a place where cranberries are on the minds of people right now and all day long. This week we wrap up our British Columbia Road trip with a visit to Yellow Point Cranberry farm located just north of Victoria. There, we gained a new appreciation for this little berry.
We found owner and head farmer Grant Keefer preparing for the big holiday season. He took a break to explain how he got into cranberry farming. Grant’s comes from a farming family located near Vancouver. He and his wife were married in 1998 and started looking around for a farm to grow cranberries, they found a pasture in 2001 and bought it.
Jeff pointed out that a nearby apple orchard – once pasture land – grew strong trees as a result of years and years and layers and layers of animal manure in the ground. Grant explained that was not the case at his farm because cranberries don’t take to manure, in fact they grow better in sand, or on his farm – sawdust.
Grant lead is to the part of his farm where the ground was covered with plastic trays of tiny planters, each with a small amount of soil and what looked like a toothpick sticking up. These are called plugs which are clippings from – get this – baskets of hanging vines. The plugs cut from the vines grow just enough root to take hold in the field, where one plug is planted every square foot. Once they are ready for harvest, the berries intended for juice and dried product will be harvested by water (picked by a machine, float to the surface, then gathered). Fresh cranberries, like the ones that come in a bag are dry picked using a contraption that resembles a lawn mower.
The second annual IE taco festival will highlight the best tacos of the inland empire and beyond. Come celebrate local taco diversity on Saturday October 22 at White Park in historic downtown Riverside IE Taco Festival WEBSITE
Yellow Point Cranberry Farm
Grant Keefer, Owner
Cranberry starts
some cranberry starts are cut from hanging baskets from different varieties of cranberries.
Hanging baskets of cranberry plants.
Jeff interviewing Grant
Grant showing Jeff the equipment used during harvesting
Cranberry field
Harvesting equipment
Yellow Point Cranberry Farm
Grant and family
Some of the products made with the farm’s cranberries.
Tour area and store