Shoppers may find themselves in a bind this fall when they begin looking for cranberry sauce, a dish classically served during Thanksgiving dinner in America.
Massachusetts, which is the second-largest cranberry producer in the United States behind Wisconsin, is experiencing a “critical drought” in most of the state and a “significant drought” in other areas.
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Residents of the state are subject to a “ban on all nonessential outdoor water use” when in the throes of “critical drought.”
Farmers of the beloved berries have said that the crop is quite finicky and that it requires lots of fresh water and consistency of weather. Unfortunately, Massachusetts’s weather has been experiencing several extreme changes over the years.
Heat waves, storms, and droughts have all presented challenges to farmers. Executive Director of the Cape Cod Cranberry Growers’ Association Brian Wick told Grist that “it’s quite clear in talking to many growers over the past several years that this change in climate is very real and it’s really starting to impact how they farm.”
Regardless, Wick remains hopeful. “We’ll see what we get for rainfall over the next few weeks,” the executive director said. “We still have about a month before harvest to get some periodic rains.”
“We’ve had so much dry heat that people’s water is getting all used up. It’s going to be a difficult harvest for a lot of people,” cranberry grower Greenwood Hartley III told Sippican Week.
“It’s difficult for any farmer. Everybody is really struggling,” the farmer said of the state’s erratic weather patterns.
According to Hartley, “We cool the cranberries by putting water on them in the early morning, running the sprinkler system for an hour or two, and if it’s incredibly hot we might do that again.” Hartley explained that “this is grinding up the cost of growing cranberries,” however.
Massachusetts will provide another update on the drought in “mid-September.” The last update was given on Sept. 8.
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This comes as the country is already bracing for Thanksgiving expenses as inflation continues to loom over their heads. Food prices rose 11.4% during the unadjusted 12 months that ended in Aug. 2022, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’s consumer price index.
