Flax Pond Cranberry Company

This is a lovely dry-​harvest cranberry farm that is owned and operated by the Angley family. The cranberry farm is open to the public from September to October; upon arriving I was offered a free tour. The owner, Jack Angley, was my tour guide for the cranberry bogs and I thought he was super friendly and informative. You can tell that he is passionate about what he does and takes it upon himself to educate the public about the cranberry harvesting process. So without further adieu, here are some simple facts about cranberries:
1) Cranberries are NOT grown in water.
2) If you can bounce a cranberry, that means it’s a good cranberry.
3) There are two ways to harvest cranberries: 1) Dry harvest 2) Wet harvest
4) Over 90% of cranberry farms are wet harvested.
5) Once a cranberry is lifted from the water, the cranberry begins to rot and so either the cranberry has to be frozen or moved into the juicing process.
Each May, a beekeeper brings the colonies to the farm and around September, the beekeeper picks up the bees and harvests the honey for the Farm. The cranberry honey is sold at a ridiculously cheap price — $ 3.50 for a small jar and $ 6.00 for a big jar. In addition to the honey, the shop offers fresh cranberries for $ 2.50 a pound, cranberry jam, cranberry tea, etc.

I organized a homeschool group to have a tour at Flax Pond Farm. I arranged our visit via email with Dot, one of the owners. She was very responsive and accommodating. The charge was $ 2 for children and the adults were free.
It was an overcast/​rainy day, and since they are fresh (dry) fruit farmers, they do not harvest in the rain, but Jack, our tour guide, was very knowledgeable and made the information interesting for the kids. He gave lots of opportunities for the children to ask questions, and was witty and informative with his answers. He explained the difference in methods of harvesting, the history of cranberry bogs, current farming practices, threats to cranberry farming, pollination methods (they rent bees!), pesticide regulations and testing and even had a little trivia for the kids.
Then we went inside where the kids were given a demonstration of the sorting machine from the early 1900s, early dry farming tools/​sorters, shown pictures of the dry cranberry harvesters and the methods, etc. This was really fascinating and interactive for the kids who all got an opportunity to sort some cranberries. The little shop also had cranberries for sale along with other wares/​products and samples.
We were told that at Christmas they sell fresh Christmas trees and decorate for the holiday. How cool! Best of all, the staff/​family were so friendly and kind. I would definitely recommend this for a group or even just a fun, inexpensive family outing.

Spent a few hours doing the bog tour today and it was really fun. It sounds like the last reviewer showed up before the bog was open for the day, but when I arrived (toward the end of the day) there were people working out in the fields harvesting the cranberries and a small shop with all kinds of cranberry products and a 19^th century original cranberry sorting machine! The farm does sell it’s cranberries to Ocean Spray but it is not an Ocean Spray farm, it’s a family owned farm that sells it’s product to the company.
I thought this place was really fun and informative. If you want to see a flooded bog this is not the farm to come to, they harvest all their fruit by hand on unflooded bogs (as they will explain water harvested berries can only be used in juices and jams and concentrates because the water causes the natural waxy coating to deteriorate and this farm harvests the berries to be used fresh). However, if you go on a normal day during their posted hours you should see people out in the field running special picker machines and loading the berries into crates that are then gathered up by helicopters! It was really cool, and to me the best part is that the tour is completely free! The workers will stop and come out of the field to talk to you and explain what they are doing and afterward you can go to the gift shop and see how the sorting machine works and try sorting some berries yourself. After answering all your questions you can pick up some treats, I filled an entire bag with cranberry products for less than $ 20, I got some tea, 3 kinds of cranberry candy, and honey gathered from the bog. If you really want to see a flooded bog all the other bogs in the area harvest that way, so drive by one of them to see a flooded bog and then come here to get all your questions answered and get your cranberry snacks.