We love winter! It’s when we get to celebrate what being a Canadian is all about – and we get to share the fun with visitors! We have approximately 10 km of trails that wind around and through our 350 acre farm. In winter, we groom these trails for snowshoeing. Lots of recent snowfall means our Snowshoe Trails […]
Our Store is Dressed for Winter!
Winter brings exciting changes to our store. Hot drinks, cozy fires, skating, snowshoeing & local goodies make it our favourite season. Come find out why! One of the big changes for this season is our new coffee maker. Yes, now you can get a real Espresso, Cappuccino or Cafe Americano in Bala in winter!Of course, […]
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 […]
Muskoka Fall Colour Watch
Muskoka’s fall colours are unforgettable. In fact, they’re so breath taking, Muskoka was voted the #1 place in Canada to watch leaves change in autumn. Here at Johnston’s Cranberry Marsh, the changing landscape is even more dramatic as the backdrop for the cranberry harvest. Crimson cranberries, combined with flaming reds, oranges and yellows make an incredible sight […]
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. […]
Fungus Among Us
Hiking trails are easy for Mr & Mrs Farmer to find – they have several right outside their door! Their love of hiking through the woods on their Muskoka farm was the reason behind developing the trails. Despite the rainy weather, they were looking forward to getting outside on one of their last free weekends before harvest […]
Spider Garden
The hiking trails at Johnston’s Cranberry Marsh in Bala, Muskoka, Ontario have something for everyone. They vary in length from 1 km to over 7 km and in difficulty from easy to advanced. There are three self-guided tours as part of the system. Some of the trails surround cranberry bogs while others wander through the woods. […]
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 […]