Planting cranberry vines in southwest Washington.

In time for this weekend’s Cranberry Harvest Fair in Long Beach, a bit of history from the Columbia Pacific Heritage Museum in Ilwaco:

“Although wild cranberries growing on the North Beach Peninsula had been used by local Indigenous people for thousands of years, the man usually credited for planting the first commercially viable cranberry bog on the peninsula is Anthony Chabot.”

Sensing similarities in the climate and terrain of southwest Washington to that of coastal New England, Chabot planted 35 acres of a cranberry variety imported from Cape Cod, Massachusetts, according to the museum. The first harvest was in 1883.

In the years to follow, researchers like Daniel “D.J.” Crowley, sent to the Long Beach Peninsula by the State College of Washington (now Washington State University) would help to refine a growing industry.

Today, Washington state is the fifth-largest producer of cranberries in the U.S., accounting for 3% of the nation’s harvest. Oregon, the fourth-largest, accounts for 5%.

Each fall, the cranberries are harvested by flooding fields called bogs. Small pockets of air inside the berries cause them to float to the surface, where they’re corralled onto conveyor belts and into trucks.

The process is fun to watch.

From 9 a.m. to noon Saturday and Sunday, see the harvest outside the Cranberry Museum on Pioneer Road, with live music from Ray Prestegard of the local band Giants in the Trees. Inside, sample fresh berries and browse a wide variety of cranberry-infused creations during museum hours from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

For those heading farther north, another harvest festival, with bog tours, food and cranberry-themed crafts, is also planned in Grayland, Washington, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.