Bill Wolfe of Nekoosa operates not one – but two – cranberry marshes. One is the Lester Cranberry Company, which was founded in 1903 by Charles Lester. The other marsh is called the Wisconsin River Cranberry Company, which Bill started in 1996. Between the two marshes, Bill and his family have about 165 acres of cranberry vines.

Bill is a second-generation cranberry grower. His father, Lloyd, moved to the Nekoosa area in the 1960s and worked for Ocean Spray Cranberries for several years before becoming a cranberry grower himself. Bill chose to follow in his father’s footsteps.

“There are a lot of challenges to being a cranberry grower, but that’s also one of the joys of farming. I enjoy the variety of the work and how it changes with the seasons,” says Bill.

The busiest time of the year on a cranberry marsh is the harvest season. At right Bill and his son Mark are shown using water-reel harvesting machines. With this type of machine, cranberry growers can harvest about 15 acres per day.

Cranberries intended for fresh fruit use are harvested with a raking machine that gently combs the cranberries from the vines and deposits them in a cranberry boat. The cranberry boats are then unloaded into trucks for a trip to the packing warehouse.

Production varies, but one acre of cranberry vines typically yields about 200 barrels – or 200,000 pounds – of cranberries.