Follow the bouncing berries. It’s a little-known characteristic of cranberries that the freshest ones bounce. In Ontario, only two farms grow cranberries commercially: Upper Canada Cranberries south of Ottawa and Muskoka Lakes Farm & Winery near Bala.
The Johnston family is now into its third generation of cranberry growing in the Muskokas on land that was planted in 1950. The farm, headed by Murray and Wendy, is now in transition to sons North, Quinn, Slater and Rogan. Their 500,000 pound crop harvested in 2024 was the second biggest on record but only 10 per cent bounced onto fresh market retail shelves in time for the Canadian Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday seasons.
Two years ago, North Johnston, production and sales manager, installed a new packing line to improve the quality of their specialty fresh cranberries being shipped to market instead of the freezer. Modern machinery aside, some cranberry packing concepts date back more than 100 years, when the berries were shipped by the barrel on clipper ships to England. Still today, cranberry growers can be heard talking about yields in terms of barrels grown, each equivalent to 100 pounds.
“A squishy or frost-damaged cranberry will fall to the bottom of the sorting line,” says Johnston, explaining the progress of the berry as it’s being packaged into either 12-ounce or one kilogram bags destined for retailers. The packages are immediately stored in coolers until they are shipped direct-to-store or on-farm market, and to the Ontario Food Terminal.
“We now have 27 acres devoted totally to cranberries,” shares Johnston. “Climate change does worry us though. If we had access to earlier-maturing cranberry hybrids, we could expand the fresh market.”
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