Meet Your Local Farmer: Hall’s Cape Cod Cranberries

As the countdown continues to the Meet Your Local Farmers event on March 28th, we thought it would be fun to chat with some of the local farmers who will be attending.

This week, we had the chance to speak with Alan Hall of Hall’s Cape Cod Cranberries, located at 489 Depot Street in North Harwich. It’s a family farm with deep Cape Cod roots. The Hall family has been growing cranberries for eight generations!

You can find out more about Hall’s Cape Cod Cranberries at the Meet Your Local Farmers event on March 28th, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Cape Cod Regional Technical High School (351 Pleasant Lake Avenue in Harwich). It’s going to be a hootenanny, so save the date!

The event, which is free and open to the public, is sponsored by Harwich Conservation Trust (HCT) and the Orleans Farmers’ Market. It’s a great opportunity to chat with farmers and purchase local produce, fish, meat and handcrafted products.

History, heritage and cranberries

The Hall’s Cape Cod Cranberries team includes Alan, his wife Maura Hall, and their sons Benjamin Hall and Nicholas Hall. “One of the best things is seeing my sons enjoy the work,” said Alan. “They are loving what I love, and it’s great to see that carried on.”

In season, the farm offers guided tours, hand-crafted artisan gifts and provisions and is home to a cool antique equipment display. And don’t forget the fresh cranberries, the beautiful native fruit that will make your taste buds sing!

When Alan talks about cranberry farming, his enthusiasm makes you want to put on a pair of waders and hit the bog. “It’s just fascinating to watch them grow,” he said. “Right now, it’s under a foot of snow, but in four or five weeks that will all be gone. And then you’ll hear the peepers and everything starts growing. It’s very fulfilling for me — the passion that we have for the cranberries, and the history and the heritage.”

Heart-shaped harvest

While it takes creativity to farm on Cape Cod, Alan and his family have taken it to another level, with stunning photography and amazingly inventive cranberry harvest art. Their photos of a carefully-arranged wet harvest, with the cranberries corralled into the shape of a heart, have garnered more than 100,000 likes on Facebook!

Stay tuned on that front, because it sounds like the Halls are cooking something up to celebrate America’s 250th birthday this year. When a goofy reporter wondered how you would work different colors into a bog arrangement, Alan texted, “Plans already in the works.” The suspense is almost too much!

Alan is a big fan of the Meet Your Local Farmers event. “Meeting people is fun and the community involvement is great,” he said. “People on Cape Cod might not realize how many small farms are out there, and it’s really nice to let people know where their food comes from, and where they can go to get specialty products. With all the farm stands and farmers markets out there, it’s becoming more common to buy local food, which is great.”

SAVE THE DATE: The Meet Your Local Farmers event will bloom on March 28th, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Cape Cod Regional Technical High School (351 Pleasant Lake Avenue in Harwich). Hope to see you there!

—Sign up for HCT eNews, a great way to stay in the loop about exciting HCT events, guided walks and other interesting news.

—Your tax-deductible contributions help fulfill the mission of the Harwich Conservation Trust to preserve land that protects woods, water, wildlife and our shared quality of life. And your land-saving financial support helps us preserve beautiful properties that can become stellar trail destinations. Find out how to donate by clicking here.