ROCHESTER — About 2 months before cranberry sauce and cranberry pies are eaten across the country for Thanksgiving, the tart fruit is ready for harvest.

At Hartley Family Farm in Rochester, 180,000 to 200,000 pounds of cranberries are harvested every fall, according to owner and former Select Board member Woody Hartley.

On the morning of Thursday, Sept. 26, Beaton’s Cranberry Growers Service came to the Hartley farm and harvested a bog of berries.

The berries were picked, rounded up and sucked through a tube right into the bed of a large truck.

Hartley explained that after Beaton’s harvests the berries, they go to Decas Cranberry based in Carver for distribution.

It was a successful harvesting season for the Hartley farm. “We got just about what we expected,” said Woody Hartley.

The first berries were planted at the Hartley Family Farm in 1998. 11 acres of bog property make up the farm.

“The hardest part is not knowing what you have until it’s on the truck,” said Hartley. “They may look good. You may think you have a good crop, but until they load it on the truck we’re not really sure.”

Beaton’s Cranberry Growers Service used a machine connected to a long tube to bring the cranberries from the bog to the back of a truck in efficient fashion. The berries are separated from the water, which is pumped back into the bog through a second tube.

“It’s fun to know that you grew the berries, to say ‘you did that’” said Hartley.

Hartley Family Farm is offering bog tours on October weekends.