Vendor: Ruesch Century Farm
Location: Wisconsin Rapids, WIWebsite: http://www.organic-cranberries.com/home
Ruesch Century Farm as the name implies is one of a handful of farms in Wisconsin that each year is recognized as being one with 100 years of continuous family ownership. Ruesch Century Farm is in its fourth generation and was purchased in 1879 by Leo and Kathrina Ruesch. With a 1 acre organic bog, the entire farm has been entered into the organic program with MOSA.
For many years, the farm was used as a small dairy operation. Since the 1920's, maple syrup has been processed each spring in the sugar bush on the ridge behind the homestead. Huge hard maples still stand some being almost 3 feet in diameter.
We built the first cranberry bog in the early 1990's and have added 3 beds since then. We dry rake some of the berries and actually use hand rakes which was the traditional harvesting method for many decades until mechanical pickers were invented.
The downside is that it takes much longer to harvest. All the berries are hand sorted, placed in containers by hand, labeled by hand. All very time consuming stuff.
The picture you see is the original home but it now has 3 additions. When we did a little remodeling, we found newspapers used for insulation. They dated back to the 1800's and were all in German!
We will remain a small player in organic cranberries and appreciate customers who support small farming operations like ours.
Anything from Ruesch Century Farm this week?
nope! not this week.
