Thanksgiving has come and gone, and you may have eaten turkey or Tofurkey, Brussel sprouts with bacon or butter (or both), but one ubiquitous item on the table is the cranberry. Whether in sauce, chutney, jam, or jelly, it’s a truly American fruit and a symbol of fall.
I went and visited the Jonjak Family Cranberry Farm, one of the few organic cranberry bogs in the country, in Wisconsin. With the struggling economy, the difficulty of managing weeds, and the lack of workers willing to do this kind of hard work, Jonjak’s organic cranberry production is going by the wayside. A farm that was thriving on the organic model just a few years ago is slowly being forced back to conventional.
The Jonjaks went organic for monetary reasons and although they see the benefit of not spraying harmful chemicals, they can’t bear to see their hard work go down the drain as the crops get destroyed by bugs. Watch the video, and let us know what you think.
