Warrens, Wisconsin Cranberry Festival The world’s largest cranberry festival!
Are you one of those that believe your Thanksgiving dinner is not complete without the cranberries? Are you a fresh cranberry type or a gelatin type out of the can? I actually like both, but after attending the Warren Cranberry Festival, I have a renewed interest in the little red berries.
I’ve been hearing about Warrens, Wisconsin for years. Many of my friends make the yearly trek up to Warrens to explore the endless row of crafters, food, parades with lots of parade queens, princesses and junior misses. The town started this little festival that has now turned into an international event. I dug into their website and got most of this information from there. (See their link below.)
Author Tip: Feel free to bring your folding chairs to claim your parade spot. Attendees will plot their spot early in the morning and then head out to enjoy the festival. Their chairs will be waiting for them when they return.
Many people know that the Warrens Cranberry Festival is the world's largest cranberry festival. What many don't know is that the festival is also a nonprofit organization that solely benefits the community of Warrens.
Fest Facts Attendance at the first Festival in 1973 was 3,500 with 75 booths. Since then, it has grown from a small community festival to an international event with more than 145,000 visitors each year (I was one of them this year) and over 1,200 booths. Did you catch that number of booths? It’s a shopping extravaganza!
One of the things I noticed were the different types of items being sold which were refreshing to me. We bought some fresh cranberries (does that speak tourist or what?) along with some amazing vanilla flavored syrup and a unique stained-glass fish for our Breezeway Bar.
The festival was started to raise funds to improve the quality of life in the Village of Warrens. The purpose of the Warrens Cranberry Festival shall be to promote the common good and general welfare of the community of Warrens, including holding an annual community festival and raising funds to be used exclusively for civic betterments and social improvements in the Warrens community.
The Warrens Cranberry Festival has given millions of dollars in donations which have benefited several community organizations, including area schools, the local fire department, and the Warrens Lions Club, just to name a few.
Scholarship Program The festival also has its own Scholarship Fund for college students. The Warrens Cranberry Festival, Inc. will award a total of Four scholarships in the amount of $500 each.
Economic Boost In addition to benefiting the community of Warrens, the festival also benefits the Monroe County area. During the Festival each year, area hotels, campgrounds, restaurants, and gas stations are filled with thousands of customers. This economic boost is roughly $14,325,000 in revenue each year.
Cranberries Now, onto the reason this event even got started. Cranberries! Wisconsin produces 61% of all U.S. cranberries. Cranberries are native to North America. They are one healthy fruit complete with a good source of vitamins and minerals that may help prevent UTIs, stomach cancer and heart disease. Cranberries are related to blueberries and lingonberries. Raw cranberries are sour and hard to eat. I tried one. That is totally accurate! So, they are usually consumed in things like sweetened juice or jellies.
Fresh cranberries are 90% water with the rest being pretty much carbs and fiber. There are only 46 calories in 1 cup of unsweetened cranberries. Not bad, but the keyword here is unsweetened. Vitamin C is huge in cranberries.
Cranberries are found in the marshlands of central Wisconsin. Native Americans used them for food, medicinal remedies and poultices. They made dye from the berries to color their rugs and blankets.
Currently, about 270 farms in Wisconsin grow cranberries. These farms span around 21,000 acres mainly in the central and northern regions. Cranberry farming began in Wisconsin in the 1830s. By the mid-1950s, Wisconsin had become the second largest U.S. cranberry producer behind Massachusetts. By 1994, Wisconsin overtook Massachusetts and became the top producer.
Fun Fact! In 2003, state lawmakers designated the cranberry as Wisconsin’s state fruit, thanks to the lobbying efforts of a group of fifth graders.
Cranberry bogs or marshes? Out east, people call them cranberry bogs, but in Wisconsin, they call them marshes. One of the common misconceptions is that cranberries sit in water all the time. Actually, they are dry until the winter when they flood the marsh to protect them from the weather and also when they are harvested in the fall. What we saw were plantings in very large, lower lying, manmade rectangular beds with wide grassy areas between for machinery to get through as well as the farmers.
Cranberries are perennials, so they do not have to be planted from year to year. Cranberries ripen in the fall and change from green to red from September until mid-November. They have to be harvested before the first frost to have a good quality berry.
They can be harvested by hand or raked off the vine. This is called dry harvesting which takes a lot of time, but they get the best berries. Wet harvesting is done by flooding the marshes with water. The cranberries that are loose will float up to the surface where they can be scooped up. Six to eighteen inches of water is pumped into the marshes the day before they are scooped up. Machines called “eggbeaters” agitate the water to help loosen the remaining cranberries off their vines. A large net is usually used to capture buoyant berries. They are then vacuumed up onto trucks and shipped to processing plants. More damage is done during wet harvesting which is why these cranberries are processed into sauces, juices or jellies. The best berries are used for cooking and baking.
Side Note: There are marsh tours nearby where you can watch this process up close and personal and even rent hip waders so you can get right in with them. Next time, I’m in!
Fun Fact 2: A great way to sort the best berries from the not-so-great ones is to bounce them. Quality berries are firm and springy meaning they bounce off the ground nicely. They bounce because of the air bubbles inside the berries. A simple drop against a flat surface should be enough to tell you whether or not your berries have the bounce.
Taking a drive up to Warrens, Wisconsin to see the cranberries and to spend a day or two to shop and watch a parade is a great way to spend a weekend while also supporting the community. It is definitely worth the trip but allow enough time to see everything this great festival offers.
Author Tip: Remember where you parked. We came in and passed the cemetery ending up in the yellow balloon parking area. After our full day of wandering and exploring, we thought we were headed in the right direction for our car. A long shuttle ride later, we were grateful for the many volunteers who make this event a success and the one who returned us to the correct lot. Thank you, Jim!
For more information, please go to: cranfest.com or Warrens Cranberry Festival on Facebook.