Massachusetts Cranberry Bog Driving Tour

By Kim Knox Beckius, About.com Guide

You'd be hard-pressed to find a more photogenic crop than cranberries, which ripen and redden in the fall. In Massachusetts, the cranberry harvest coincides with fall foliage season, providing a double dose of visual splendor. According to the Cape Cod Cranberry Growers' Association, 400 of North America's 1,000 or so cranberry farms are concentrated in Massachusetts: Most are south of Boston in Plymouth County and on Cape Cod.

Any drive in this region during Massachusetts' cranberry harvest season, which typically begins the last week of September and runs through October and sometimes into November, is likely to offer views of cranberry growers hard at work tending and picking the state's top agricultural cash crop. There's a good chance, too, you'll find yourself driving behind dump trucks brimming with red berries.

If you'd like to set out on a Massachusetts Cranberry Bog Driving Tour, I've got tips from my October 14, 2012 trip and photos to inspire you. Matt Gordon, the Manager of Agricultural Economic Development for the Cape Cod Cranberry Growers' Association, suggested I start my Cranberry Bog Safari at Bog Hollow Farm, where I snapped the scene above of a sprawling bog with cranberries still growing dense on the vine.

Driving Tour Starting Point: Bog Hollow Farm, 80 Wapping Road (Route 106), Kingston, MA.