Halloween has been known to be a busy night for law enforcement. All Hallows’ Eve is often accompanied by late-night shenanigans and tomfoolery bound to get someone in trouble. So it looks like it’s going to remain a busy time for new Orange Police Officer Evangeline Cakounes.
The 22-year-old grew up on a cranberry farm in Harwich, and the fall is the time to harvest in this little chunk of the agricultural world. This is when cranberries ripen on their vines, making it convenient for people who use them in bread and stuffing — not to mention cranberry sauce — for Thanksgiving and Christmas.
“It’s a crazy time of year,” said Cakounes, whose family owns Cape Farm Supply & Cranberry Company, the largest organic cranberry bog on Cape Cod. “It’s insane.”
She explained there are two types of cranberry harvesting — dry and wet.
“Dry (harvesting) almost looks like someone’s mowing their own lawn,” she said, adding that these berries are the ones used for home cooking and baking.
Wet harvesting is when the berries are picked in a bog. But don’t believe everything you see in TV commercials. Cakounes said a bog never has water in it until it is purposefully flooded to begin a 24-hour picking period.
“You have to do it immediately or it will rot because of the water, like an apple,” she said, adding that water goes up to the pickers’ ankles only. “It’s not that cool of a process.”
Cakounes said wet-picked berries are what you’ll find in pre-made products — such as juices, canned cranberry sauce, and baked goods — in a store.
She mentioned cranberries are a different crop, in that no seed is planted. The fruit grows back on vines that are hearty and resilient enough to withstand rain and snowstorms. She mentioned the vines on her family’s 63-acre property have been there for more than 300 years.
“The Pilgrims used to pick the exact same bog that we’re picking right now,” Evangeline said.
She said winters are spent fixing birdhouses (birds eat pesky worms) and caring for the farm’s animals and equipment.
Massachusetts is the oldest cranberry-growing region in the country and, to support a quintessential New England crop, Gov. Charlie Baker declared October as “Massachusetts Cranberry Month.” According to the state Department of Agricultural Resources, there are approximately 13,000 acres of commercial cranberry bogs in Massachusetts, primarily in Plymouth, Bristol and Barnstable counties.
The value of utilized Massachusetts cranberry production was approximately $64.9 million in 2020, and cranberries represent the top commercial crop grown in the commonwealth, producing nearly 23 percent of the nation’s cranberry supply. According to National Geographic, Wisconsin produces more than half of all cranberries in the United States.
Despite being the source of a longtime holiday favorite, however, cranberry farming has bottomed out in recent years. Leo Cakounes, Evangeline’s father, said big business has killed small agriculture, including the pork, dairy and egg industries. He also said astronomical land values have been crippling, too. He mentioned his grandparents were pig farmers in Saugus and did everything in their power to prevent their children and grandchildren from going into agriculture because there is no money to be made.
“My grandfather was right,” Leo Cakounes said. “I’m 65 years old and I can say he was 100 percent right.”
Evangeline said her parents started offering bog tours a handful of years ago, and that is where most of their revenue comes from now. More information is available at www.cranberrybogtours.com.
“The cranberry business is awful,” Evangeline said. “The truth of it is, no one wants cranberries.”
She said people used to drive up to the family’s farm stand and buy fresh berries until about five to seven years ago. She said Americans have an estimated three years’ worth of cranberries, and blamed this trend on people cooking and baking far less than throughout history.
Evangeline mentioned cranberries can be found in many pet foods nowadays “because there’s just no place for all the berries to go, unfortunately.”
But Leo Cakounes said, except for market demand, he wouldn’t change anything.
“I thoroughly enjoyed raising my child in an agricultural atmosphere,” he said. “I basically have spent my life savings to maintain an agricultural lifestyle. But I love the way my daughter was brought up. I don’t think you could replicate her experience.”
And, for her part, Evangeline has fond memories of her childhood on the farm, which also raises animals — some for meat and some to give a loving home.
“I loved it. I didn’t have brothers or sisters growing up. I’m an only child, so it was nice to have the animals,” she said. “I was always busy with the cranberries. … I would go to school and come home and help out. It definitely kept me out of trouble.”
Law enforcement is a new career for the Cakounes family, and Evangeline said she has wanted to be a police officer since she was 2 years old. She was sworn in by Town Clerk Nancy Blackmer at the Orange Selectboard meeting on Sept. 8 in a ceremony she described as a dream come true. She works the 3-to-11 p.m. shift.
She is working toward a master’s degree at Fitchburg State University, where she is enrolled in a program in which participants earn a bachelor’s degree, a master’s degree and go through the state police academy in five years. She lives in Westfield, with plans to move to Orange as soon as possible, and helps her parents at the farm every month or so.
Reach Domenic Poli at: dpoli@recorder.com or 413-772-0261, ext. 262.