Cranberry farming creates many beautiful sights on the Long Beach Peninsula, from the haze of red on the field to the sparkling sprays of irrigation jets in the mist. Every year Ilwaco’s Columbia Pacific Heritage Museum (formerly the Ilwaco Heritate Museum) hosts the Cranberrian fair with a “bog bus” (actually the handsome old Long Beach trolley) that will take you to see the autumn harvest in progress. In October of 2010 the tour happened on a particularly beautiful autumn day.
the bog bus posed to take us touring
Cranberry Research Station
The trolley took us out of Ilwaco to the Cranberry Research Station with its bogs and its Cranberry Museum.
Cranberry Museum
cranberry harvesting tools
The method of harvesting does not seem to have changed much over the years…
corralling the berries
wading in
herding berries
cranberries
a modern procedure
cranberry truck
across the bog
the old-fashioned harvest
bog bus and harvesters on Pioneer Road
Heathers are planted alongside the bogs to encourage bees early in the season. Bees are also brought in by beekeepers to pollenate the crop.
an edge of heather
view from the porch of the Cranberry Museum
Red is the perfect colour to wear to the Cranberrian fair.
Get your picture taken in a harvester cutout!
Inside the museum, we had a delicious lunch catered by Beach House Catering and perused Cranberrian Fair t- shirts, a wine tasting, a walk through display of old harvesting implements and history, and a gift shop full on cranberry related items (soap, food, even lampshades painted with cranberries).
in the museum
a collection of old Cranberry Festival buttons
In 2012, the fair will be on October 13th and 14th.
Tangly Cottage Gardening 