Nature Trail and Ocean Spray Cranberry Bog at Patriot Place

Better known for its shops, football stadium, and enormous lighthouse, Patriot Place is also home to Nature Trail and Ocean Spray Cranberry Bog managed by the Ocean Spray Cooperative, a company run by about seven hundred farmers and started in 1930. The short loop through the woods and passing by the seven-acre bog was designated a Healthy Heart Trail by Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) and covers about half a mile (0.8 km). Throughout the trail are signs describing the history and ecology to growing cranberries.

During my walk, I learned that cranberries are special to the Americans, as these are one of the few native fruits, joining blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, persimmons, and pawpaws, among others. English colonists originally called the fruit “crane-berry” because of the pretty pink-and-white flowers that appear in spring to become berries; these look vaguely like a crane. Before the arrival of Europeans, Native Americans had dry harvested cranberries for thousands of years, and each group called the fruit by a different name. In the Foxborough area, Wampanoag people still use the world sassamansh and continue to pick the berries.

Wet harvesting has become a common technique for large commercial growers. The cranberry bog is dry for most of the year until harvest season, when water reel machines drive through the bog to loosen the berries from the vines — not bushes — and harvesters climb into the bog to corral the berries. During dry harvests, a giant machine combs berries from their vines, which are then bagged and taken away by helicopter.

Once the cranberries are harvested, the growers need to sort the berries by quality. The best berries are sold whole, decent berries become craisins, and the ugly but still tasty berries are turned into juice and sauce. The most entertaining and historically interested metric by which cranberries are judged is bounciness. In the days before the Americans with Disabilities Act, a New Jersey grower called John “Peg-Leg” Webb struggled to carry his berries down the stairs due to his disability, so he poured the berries down the stairs instead. He discovered the best berries bounced down the stairs, while the inferior berries got stuck. I wanted to verify the truth to this legend, so I did a little more research. In an online book about Coastal New Jersey, the National Park Service claimed “Old Peg-Leg” lived in Cassville, a village of Jackson, NJ, and the staircase incident took place in the 1845. I did find a cemetery record for a John I. Webb who lived between 1810 and 1895 in Jackson, NJ, but the page mentions neither a peg leg nor cranberries.

Outside of dubious legends, signage bragged that Massachusetts remains one of the top cranberry-growing regions in the world, alongside other states like New Jersey, Oregon, Washington, and Wisconsin; several provinces in Canada; and the South American country Chile. Besides its great taste, the antioxidants in cranberries protect its consumer from infections, ulcers, and gum diseases.

Nature Trail and Ocean Spray Cranberry Bog at Patriot Place is open from dawn to dusk, seven days of the week throughout the year. The trail is fairly flat with a few inclines. It is not accessible for wheelchair users, and the ground in some sections is covered in roots. If you are in the Foxborough area and need a break from the noise and hustle of Patriot Place, this trail is a relaxing and educational walk.

Abby Epplett’s Rating System

Experience: 9/10

Accessibility: 5/10