Text by John Speirs; photos by Terry Foss
Twenty four Medford Leas residents traveled the short distance down route 70 to Brown’s Mills, New Jersey where Joe and Brenda Darlington’s Pine Barrens Native Fruits Farm is located.
Covering several thousand acres we witnessed the cranberry harvest after hearing Brenda talk about the industry, and its history much of which was started by Josiah White, whose daughter Elizabeth created the campus where the pickers lived.
Today the farm is part of the Ocean Spray Cooperative which takes most of the harvested cranberries and their blueberries as well. Brenda’s daughter, and a friend prepared samples during a cooking demonstration. We were given a cook book of cranberry recipes before leaving to drive into the fields to observe the harvest. Their son was running one of the state of art pickers.
Before leaving we visited the Gift Shop offering everything cranberries. Many of you at Medford Leas knew Tom Darlington, whose son, Joe now runs the farm.
