Get Your Canada 150 Thrill! Opening Day Highlights: July 15, 2017 is the Grand Opening of Blueberry Hill here at Johnston’s Cranberry Marsh & Muskoka Lakes Winery. We’ve been working on this project for three years and are excited to share it with visitors. 1 pm: Mayor Don Furniss will cut the ribbon to officially […]
Farm News
Spring has Sprung for Cranberries!
Spring is a busy time of year for the farmer. Since cranberry vines are perennial, spring work begins as soon as the snow starts melting. The first concern is protecting the vines from frost damage. That means re-installing our irrigation system. The challenge is remembering which piece goes where. It’s kind of like a jigsaw puzzle you […]
Winter Farm Update – time to make the Ice Trail
So what happens on a cranberry farm in winter? Does everyone just pack up and go skiing? Not quite. There’s actually a lot of work to be done to protect the vines through the harsh, winter months. After harvest, the vines turn a deep burgundy colour. While cranberry vines are categorized as ‘evergreen,’ the leaves […]
Ontario Cranberry Harvest is Underway!
The Ontario cranberry harvest has begun at Johnston’s Cranberry Marsh in Bala, Muskoka. Picking usually gets underway two weekends before Canadian Thanksgiving, but this year it started even earlier, and signs are pointing to a record-breaking crop. The dry summer was good for the cranberries because bees don’t work when it rains. That means the bees remained busy […]
White Cranberries
What, exactly, are white cranberries? They’re cranberries early in the harvest season, and they’re ripe! If you put white cranberries in the freezer, they turn red. If you cook them, they turn red. That’s because cooking and freezing releases the anthocyanin (red pigment). If you look at a bed of cranberries, they all look red. […]
Summer Farm Tour
If you come for a summer farm tour at Johnston’s Cranberry Marsh in Bala, Muskoka, Ontario, you’ll discover how we ‘bloom and grow.’ Cranberries blossom in July and, by August the berries have formed. It’s now near the end of August, and we have lots of green berries on the marsh. The development of cranberries starts in […]
Cranberry Blossoms
Cranberry blossoms appear in late June and into July at Johnston’s Cranberry Marsh in Bala, Muskoka, Ontario. It’s one of the prettiest times of year here because the cranberry beds take on a blush of pink. Cranberries are named for their flower. Early settlers thought it looked like the head of a crane, so they called them […]
Spring Farm Update
Spring is a beautiful time of year on the farm. The cranberry vines emerge from under the snow a beautiful burgundy colour. Interestingly, cranberries are an ‘evergreen’ vine, which means they keep their leaves year round. When they enter their dormant phase, however, the leaves turn a deep red colour. As the days warm up […]