‘This is experiencing’: Hartley Family Farm to offer cranberry bog tours

ROCHESTER — In 1996, Woody Hartley and his brother Walter cleared a tract of woods behind Route 105 to build cranberry bogs.

The first berries were planted in 1998. The first crop, a modest one, came in 2000.

Nearly 25 years of cranberries later, the Hartley family is sharing the bogs with the public through cranberry bog tours in the fall.

“People want to see the cranberries,” Woody Hartley, a former Rochester Select Board member, said. “They really do. They come from all over the world and they want to see the cranberries.”

In a tractor-drawn wagon, visitors will travel around the more than 11 acres of bog property during harvest season. A member of the Hartley family will explain what the tourists see and share the history of cranberry growing in Massachusetts and how the bogs at the Rochester farm were built.

Woody Hartley’s wife Sharon Hartley said one of the special things about cranberries is that “they harken back to the very beginnings of the country, to survival of the pilgrims that landed here.”

“They’re a native fruit, and to see the cranberry and understand that is really, I think, important,” she said.

After the drive around the property, the tour will come to a flooded bog with cranberries floating in a corral. There, attendees can equip a pair of waders and enter the bog, according to Woody Hartley.

“That’s a really cool thing to do, to be able to put on the waders and step up chest deep in the water and experience that,” Woody Hartley’s son Scott said. “That’s really cool.”

Scott Hartley’s wife Grace Morrison said standing in the bog is a “neat feeling,” while Sharon Hartley, a member of the Rochester School Committee, said it feels like a “massage.”

Woody Hartley said the waders, of which the farm has 40 pairs for the tours, are like wet suits. And the bog water is cold, about 50 to 60 degrees, he said.

Tours will run for an hour in groups of 20, according to Woody Hartley.

“This is experiencing, not just watching and looking,” Sharon Hartley said.

There will also be cranberry picking equipment on display. Lucky visitors might view the property on a day when the farm’s bogs are flooded and the cranberries are picked, according to Woody Hartley.

“There’s equipment down here,” Scott Hartley said. “There’s things going on, so opening that up to the public for a short period of time is a pretty special thing, because you really can’t just go wander around and see a real working farm.”

Hartley Family Farm produces 1,500 to 2,000 barrels — a measure of 100 pounds — of cranberries annually, according to Woody Hartley.

Tours are $50 per person and will be offered on 12 days across three weekends in October. Learn more or register at cranberrybogtour.com.

The tours are a family operation in scope. Potential guides around the cranberry bogs include Woody Hartley, his niece Kate Hartley, daughter and husband Amy and Jesse Hartley-Matteson, as well as Sharon Hartley, Scott Hartley and Grace Morrison.

Morrison said the bogs are “magical,” the cranberries floating in the water are “stunning.”

Beyond the vast sweep of cranberries, wildlife — deer, eagles, fisher cats, for instance — can also be seen at the property.

“It’s cool to do this as a family now and be able to share that with other people too,” Morrison said. “Because I think in this world that we’re in right now, I think more things that bring people together like this are important.”