Think Thanksgiving. You think turkey. Think Wisconsin. You think dairy. But maybe we should start thinking "cranberry" instead.
The Executive Director of the Wisconsin Cranberry Growers Association, Tom Lochner, says Wisconsin will lead the nation again in cranberry production. The 12 th year in a row.
Wisconsin cranberry farmers produce more than 3 and a half million barrels of the fruit a year or about 55 per cent of the nation's output, according to Lochner.
And that's even with a blow from mother nature that produced one of the most damaging hail storms in recent memory this summer. Farmers lost roughly 300-thousand barrels in that storm but the state still came through with a good crop.
There's just one place that's mounting competition and it's not California. It's Canada where Lochner says they're seeing expanding cranberry farms but he feels Wisconsin is positioned well to be the nation's cranberry leader for years to come.