Crane-berries in Bloom

I have had that topic in mind for weeks, but with no time to come to the computer to write about it. The “crane-berries” of course are the cranberries, but their name derives from the fact that their blossom looks a lot like the head of a heron. And back in the day, herons were called “cranes” by the earlier settlers, hence the name.

About two weeks ago, as I crested the railroad tracks at the bog, I saw that the green leaves were overshadowed by a carpet of pink. Ah, the cranberries are blooming. Now, this morning, there are only patches of pink left and the flowers hopefully have been pollinated by the grower’s bees and will start developing into cranberries soon. If you have a bog near you, check them out soon and you will see how much like a bird’s head the flower really is.


Cranberries are native to the Cape, one of the few things that are, and the Indians and the early pilgrims would harvest them from the wild bogs that dot the area. It was in the 1800’s that someone realized you could clear the natural bog of its Atlantic Cedar and transfer sections of wild vines and start your own little agribusiness. Something that was the rage for awhile and sadly there aren’t many White Cedar bogs left on the Cape. However, after the hay day of cranberry growing, many a bog reverted to trees, but most often to Red Maple and High Bush Blueberry. Old bogs are easy to spot though, because the ditches that were dug around them to flood the berries at harvest are straight along the edge and 90 degree angle at the corners.

It is amazing how quickly the trees reclaim the land. I walk around another bog that is an active one, and either the man is being all natural and not using herbicide, or he just hasn’t gotten around to it, but there must be 100 young maple saplings just dying to take over. With straight sun and no competition they are up in no time. The grower who owns the bog I walk around has finished mowing half of the wildflowers down around the bog edge. Milkweed and Yarrow and Blue Eyed Grass are still there, but I think also, that he just hasn’t gotten time to finish the job. Always sad, but as I mentioned before, he isn’t making his livelihood selling Milkweed.

I also need to mention in this blog, which is hastily being written in between tasks I am trying to do cheerfully for my husband on Father’s Day, that we will be out of town for awhile. Way out of town, visiting a daughter in Germany whom is soon bound for Afghanistan and wants one last adventure in Croatia. Yikes, I can barely find that on the map! Between work and getting ready and then being gone, I think it may be a while before I put fingers to keyboard to regale you with what’s up in the world where I walk. You too, no doubt, are swimming in summer plans, and have little time to read them anyway.

Do enjoy summer, the baby birds are everywhere, pecking at everything, hoping one of these stabs brings up something yummy, plants are flowering and putting out their seeds already, the air is full of swallows and dragonflies and the roads are full of tourists. Enjoy everyone, and God willing, we will make it back from this little, hardly planned, fling and catch up with you and the summer world that will surround us all by then. Till then, happy nature spotting summer to you all!