The Morning Harvest: Farm and Food News, No. 029, Saturday, November 7, 2026
Today in 30 seconds
A cranberry grows on a perennial vine in an acidic sand or peat bed, and about 95% of the crop is harvested by flooding the bed.
A 100-pound barrel paid farmers $36.20 in 2025, which works out to about 27 cents of fruit in a 12-ounce bag.
USDA forecasts 7.87 million barrels for 2026, but one Wisconsin grower says his state's crop is down about one third.
The federal marketing order that once let growers hold fruit off the market was voted out in 2023 and terminated in 2024.
Starting a bed costs $20,000 to just over $50,000 an acre, so most backyard growers should start with a soil test.
New Jersey ranked fourth in 2025, and USDA forecasts its crop up about 36% this year.
Buy local: pasture-raised beef and eggs, pastured chicken, and our own blackberries at our farm stand in Hammonton, NJ. Free pickup by appointment only. See the price list: www.curatednature.co/farm-stand
How are cranberries grown, and who grows them?
A cranberry is a perennial vine that grows in a bed, often called a bog, on acidic sandy or peat soil. The ideal soil pH is 4.0 to 5.5. Growers flood the beds in winter to protect the buds. They flood them again at harvest: in a wet harvest, the berries float, and that is how about 95% of the crop is picked, according to PBS Wisconsin. Dry harvest, with comb pickers, supplies the fresh bags.
Henry Hall, a Revolutionary War veteran in North Dennis on Cape Cod, moved wild vines into a drained, sanded plot in 1816. By 1820 he was shipping berries to Boston and New York.
Ocean Spray, a cooperative, meaning a business owned by its farmer members, buys most of the crop. Three growers founded it in 1930, and it now counts more than 700 grower families. Iowa State's AgMRC says it accounts for about 80% of raw cranberry purchases.
What to do: Read the free USDA NASS Noncitrus Fruits and Nuts summary to see your own state's crop.
Sources: USDA NASS Noncitrus Fruits and Nuts 2025 Summary, May 2026; Purdue, 2019; APSnet, 2000; AgMRC, April 2024; Farm Credit; PBS Wisconsin, Nov. 13, 2018.
What do cranberry farmers get paid per barrel, and how much do they grow?
A barrel is 100 pounds of berries. Here is the national picture for 2025, from USDA NASS:
US production: 7,508,000 barrels, down from 8,742,000 in 2024, on 35,300 harvested acres.
Wisconsin: 4,605,000 barrels, 61% of the US crop.
Massachusetts: 1,925,000 barrels, 26%.
Oregon: 529,000 barrels. New Jersey: 449,000 barrels.
Grower price: $36.20 a barrel in 2025, versus $38.20 in 2024 and $37.80 in 2023.
Crop value: $270.2 million, about 19% below 2024's $333.1 million.
The arithmetic: $36.20 a barrel is about 36 cents a pound. A 12-ounce bag holds 0.75 pound, so the farm value of the fruit in one bag is about 27 cents. A smaller crop and a lower price both pushed the 2025 value down.
What to do: Watch the NASS Crop Production report in January 2027 for the final 2026 cranberry count.
Sources: USDA NASS Noncitrus Fruits and Nuts 2025 Summary, May 2026.
Why is the 2026 cranberry crop so unusual?
USDA's August forecast is 7.87 million barrels, up 5% from 2025 but 5% below the 2022 to 2024 average of 8.3 million. About 96% of that crop goes to processing.
Then comes a conflict. Wisconsin grower Kevin Tritz of Twin Lake Cranberry told FreshPlaza that his state's crop is "believed to be down by roughly one third," blaming an early cold winter, little summer rain and Canadian wildfire smoke during pollination. That is one grower's estimate, not USDA's, and NASS will not update cranberries until January 2027. Contracts were set in summer, so prices stayed put.
The tool for managing a glut is gone. A marketing order let growers vote to hold part of a big crop off the market. In 2023 only 26.5% of voting growers favored keeping theirs. USDA suspended the Cranberry Marketing Committee in October 2023 and published the final termination rule on July 12, 2024.
What to do: Mark the January 2027 NASS release, and look for the AFBF Thanksgiving survey in mid-November.
Sources: USDA NASS Crop Production, Aug. 12, 2026; USDA ERS Outlook, Sept. 24, 2026; FreshPlaza, Oct. 29, 2026; USDA AMS, July 12, 2024; The Packer, Aug. 17, 2023.
What are cranberries costing at the grocery store this week?
USDA's National Retail Report for Nov. 6 puts the average advertised price of a 12-ounce bag of fresh cranberries at $2.37, from 2,349 store ads. Last week it was $2.51 from 1,805 ads, and a year ago $2.27 from 4,317 ads. Ads are up about 30% in a week. At $2.37, the fruit costs about $3.16 a pound, against roughly 36 cents a pound paid to the farmer.
Wholesale sits in between. At terminal markets, the big wholesale hubs, cartons of 24 bags on Nov. 6 were:
Los Angeles, Canada origin: $44.00, about $1.83 a bag.
New York, Canada: $36.00, about $1.50 a bag. New Jersey large fine appearance: $42.00, about $1.75 a bag.
Ocean Spray told NBC10 it is not raising prices on fresh cranberries or sauce this holiday. The 2025 Farm Bureau survey put a bag at $2.28.
What to do: Buy on the ad, because ads are up 30% in a week.
Sources: USDA AMS National Retail Report, Nov. 6, 2026; USDA AMS Los Angeles terminal, Nov. 6, 2026; USDA AMS New York terminal, Nov. 6, 2026; NBC10 Philadelphia, Oct. 29, 2026; Blue Book Services on the AFBF survey, Nov. 20, 2025.
Can you grow cranberries on your own land?
Commercial beds are costly. The University of Maine Extension says establishment runs $20,000 to just over $50,000 an acre, with Maine growers averaging about $35,000. Commercial production takes about 4 years, payback averages about 12 years, and well-managed bogs yield 100 to 200 barrels an acre. The Rutgers-bred Mullica Queen averaged 320 barrels an acre in UMass trials, against 142 for the old Early Black and Howes.
Site rules are strict. You need water to flood a bed 2 feet deep, a reservoir, and nearby sand. Wetlands approval is costly and not guaranteed, so upland sites fare better. In Massachusetts, the state paid $6 million across 12 awards in 2024 to turn retired bogs back into wetlands.
For a yard, UMass advises soil pH below 5. If you want acid-loving berries, see our backyard vineyard, orchard and berry installation service.
What to do: Soil test the top 6 to 8 inches this month. For blueberries or cranberries, add sulfur at 5 to 10 pounds per 1,000 square feet and retest in 4 to 6 months.
Sources: Maine Extension Bulletin 2247; UMass, 2017; Mass.gov, Nov. 26, 2024; UMass soil guide, Nov. 2024.
How are New Jersey cranberries doing in 2026?
New Jersey ranked fourth in 2025, behind Wisconsin, Massachusetts and Oregon. NASS counted 449,000 barrels on 2,800 acres, or 160.2 barrels an acre. Growers got $36.60 a barrel, for a crop worth $16.4 million. For 2026, USDA forecasts 610,000 barrels, up about 36%.
In Chatsworth, Burlington County, Lee Brothers Farm is 158 years old and an Ocean Spray member. Jennifer Lee told NBC10 Philadelphia on Oct. 29 that the season was "great," with steady rain, after a drought two years earlier forced costly groundwater pumping. Rising fertilizer and diesel costs still weigh on growers.
Research helps. The Rutgers P.E. Marucci Center in Chatsworth, where Nicholi Vorsa has led breeding since 1985, released varieties such as Crimson Queen, Mullica Queen and Scarlet Knight.
What to do: New Jersey growers can call the Rutgers P.E. Marucci Center in Chatsworth. Outside New Jersey, try the UMass Cranberry Station or your state Extension.
Sources: USDA NASS Noncitrus Fruits and Nuts 2025 Summary, May 2026; USDA NASS Crop Production, Aug. 12, 2026; NBC10 Philadelphia, Oct. 29, 2026; Rutgers Today, Nov. 21, 2016.
What should I watch in cranberries between now and January?
Thanksgiving is Thursday, Nov. 26, and the berry's biggest week is near. Figures USDA has cited say Americans eat nearly 400 million pounds a year, about 20% of it in Thanksgiving week, or about 2.3 pounds a person, mostly as juice.
Here is the calendar:
Mid-November: the AFBF Thanksgiving survey, which put dinner for 10 at $55.18 last year.
January 2027: NASS final cranberry numbers, which will settle the Wisconsin question.
Canada: the second-largest producer made 211,790 metric tons in 2024, about 4.67 million barrels, with Quebec at 73%.
What to do: Put the January NASS release and the Farm Bureau survey on your calendar.
Sources: AgMRC Cranberries, April 2024; Blue Book Services on the AFBF survey, Nov. 20, 2025; Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, 2024.
Own land? Stop mowing grass and start growing fruit
Cranberries need a bog, but blueberries, blackberries and grapes can turn a lawn into a producing planting. Curated Nature designs and installs backyard vineyards, orchards and berry rows, with soil testing, variety selection, planting and irrigation, at our consulting page. Installs are local to Southern New Jersey, and remote consulting and design-only plans are available nationwide. Start with the soil test.
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