Wisconsin Cranberries
Wisconsin
Our visits: So far 1 visit in October 2024
Warrens Cranfest
Description: The Cranberry Festival in Warrens, Wisconsin, is probably the largest of its kind in the world. At the first festival in 1973, 3,500 visitors came to the then 75 stands. Since then, the festival has grown from a small community festival to an international event with more than 145,000 visitors a year and over 1,200 stands. It takes place every year on the last weekend of September, at the start of the cranberry harvest. In 2024, the festival was held for the 51st time.
Our rating: Basically, the festival is like a huge fair with countless booths and stalls where you can buy everything imaginable. I would have imagined and wished for a lot more reference to the Cranberries, but most of the stalls were just dedicated to stuff. Nevertheless, it was quite nice to experience it.
Nokomis Cranberry - Marsh Tour
Description: Nokomis Cranberry is one of the many growers of cranberries in Wisconsin. While searching for one of the “red fields” we came across the tour here at Nokomis. The tour is free. You can simply drop by during opening hours. Unfortunately, no harvest was in progress during our visit, so we only got to see fields that had already been harvested or had not yet been harvested. Nevertheless, the tour was very interesting and we even got a tip on where we might still be able to see “red fields”.
Our rating: The tour is free, lasts about an hour and is very informative. For those who are interested in cranberries, this is certainly worthwhile.
Three Lakes Cranberry
Description: Thanks to the tip from the Nokomis tour, we were lucky to see one of the cranberry fields that had just been harvested. The floating red berries look like a huge red lake. This offers plenty of opportunities to take photos.
Our rating: As the floating red cranberries were the reason why we were in this area in the first place, we were happy to finally have found a farm where they were being harvested. We learned that although there is a harvest season, cranberries are practically harvested on a daily basis, just when they are ripe. As nature is not so predictable, the details can of course vary.
