Stories from Cranberry Farmers
One day, I noticed something floating in the water of the reservoir next to the marsh. I kept my eye on it, and low and behold, it was an enormous snapping turtle. He crawled over the dyke and sure enough right into the cranberry bed. I didn't want him in there but I wanted to keep my hand more!
-Tom Ruesch
At night in the fall, I sleep in a little shack down by our half-acre cranberry bed to keep frost watch. The first night in my shack, I listened to my headphones and then started to drift off to sleep. I was awakened abruptly to the sound of a coyote! My heart wouldn't stop racing for hours, but it was a good thing because soon it was reaching freezing and time to flood the marsh! -Brian Ruesch
Listen to a Coyote Howl
My dad (Tom) used to tell me that in the 30's and 40's when all the raking was done by hand, he would purposely rake next to one of the fastest rakers and talk to him. seems my dad could talk and work at the same time but other rakers would always stop working so they could talk. There was always a competition for the fastest raker award and he would nearly always win because of this crafty strategy. -Patrick Ruesch
One time when I was in high school and raking the cranberry bed edges with some other fellows, an argument ensued about something. We wore hip boots and the water along the edges was well above the tops and in some cases neck deep. One of the trouble makers drew the ire of one of my brothers and me and we devised a plan. The next time we found a frog, it would go down the back of his hip boots. Well, we found one and it went down but for some reason he didn't feel it. After 3 more frogs and a small garder snake he started feeling something. With all the hoop-la and jumping around he fell into the ditch and had to go home and change. We had a great laugh but nearly got fired for it. We always kept an eye on our backsides after that! -Brian Ruesch
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