Fall brings a flood of red, delicious cranberries.
[soft piano music]
Wisconsin is by far the largest growing region in the world.
- Lindsay Meissner: Specifically, Wood County grows
up to 60% of our nation's cranberries.
So, it's quite impressive.
We have a really great climate for it.
It is a native fruit crop,
so we do have the soil conditions
and the environmental conditions
necessary for growing a perennial berry crop.
- Angela: Not only is Pittsville
the geographic center of our state,
but at the very center of that cranberry production.
- Pittsville is a very unique, diverse agricultural area.
- Angela: And there's something else
about this city's unique cranberry connection.
- Lindsay: We believe
that we're the only Cranberry Science class
in our entire nation.
Overall, like I said, I thought it went really well.
- Angela: Lindsay Meissner teaches
that one-of-a-kind Cranberry Science class.
- I did grow up in the Marshfield area,
so in Wood County.
Most of my knowledge, however,
has come from teaching the class the last five years.
- Joey Redmond: This class is important because
it tells you about the life cycle of cranberries
and not a lot of people know
that Wisconsin's number one producing crop is cranberries.
It's the cheese state.
But in reality, Wisconsin is kind of the cranberry state.
- Angela: Sharing the pride about the local cranberry crop
starts at an early age.
- Aiden Kolar: Good morning.
Welcome to the Splash of Cranberry Tour.
I am Aiden
with the Pittsville High School Cranberry Science class.
- Angela: Tours guided by high school students
provide a direct encounter
with Wisconsin's cranberry industry.
- Aiden Kolar: The word "cranberry"
originated from the Dutch German settlers "crane berry"
because the blossom of a cranberry
looks like the head and neck of a crane.
- Lindsay Meissner: People are just curious about cranberries.
Hi, this is our 21st year of cranberry tours.
For the guests to be able to go out
and see the production and harvesting
is definitely a unique aspect to the course.
- Sara LaCoursiere: Hello, my name is Sara,
and I'm also a senior at Pittsville High School.
- Angela: For Sara LaCoursiere,
Cranberry Science provides a hands-on lesson from the land.
- We learn about pests and deer.
We also learn about how everything works
and the processes and a little bit more about the equipment.
- Angela: The Cranberry Tour shows what it takes
to support a berry crop.
- Child: Hey, lookit!
- And how it generates nearly
a billion dollars in revenue and 4,000 jobs.
- Sara: They got to see
a actual person out there harvesting with the waders on.
- Joey: The berries being corralled
and separated from the waste.
They also get cleaned a little bit going up into the hopper
and then going into the truck.
- All right, who enjoyed the marsh?
- Child: Yeah.
- Joey: You thought it was pretty cool, yeah? - Group: Yeah.
- Angela: Right about now,
their curiosity about cranberries is peaking.
- That is a great question.
So why didn't we get to try any of the berries?
So, the berries actually that are on the marsh
are not cleaned yet.
- Angela: And the cleaning station
is where they're headed next.
- Joey Redmond: And the second stop is where the berries are dumped
and they go into that big pit.
They get sucked up
and then they go into the cleaning station.
95% of them go to being juices,
and then they also become sweet and dried cranberries.
- Angela: But there is still a lot of work
to get this fruit from the farm to the table.
- Lindsay Meissner: Which includes the binning of the berries,
the lab testing of the berries,
and then, the freezer side of the berries.
- A lot of people do know about cranberries
and about the cranberry juice,
but they don't know the process that it goes through.
I find the lab area the most interesting,
and that's where they test the color spectrums
and sugar content.
- Angela: The science class may be about cranberries,
but in the end, it's about growing a sense of community.
- Joey Redmond: I have been living on a cranberry marsh since 2009.
It's been in our family since I was a little kid.
- Sara LaCoursiere: A couple years ago, we actually did one of these tours.
We went through 'em when we were younger just like they did.
It's very cool.
I mean, it's definitely something I've wanted to do
since I entered high school.
- Lindsay Meissner: They actually learn to appreciate
why Pittsville is Pittsville.
Appreciating where they come from...
- Thank you, you guys are awesome!
- ...And that's how communities stay successful.
[happy conversations in background]