Katelyn and Ben Herziger understand the entire journey of a cranberry, from the moment it begins growing on a vine to when it is harvested from a flooded bed. Now, these growers from the Warrens area are working to take their berries a step further by turning them into a bottled product.
The Herzigers, who operate Zeda Cranberry Company near Warrens, have launched Beautiful Harvest, a refrigerated cranberry juice made from Wisconsin cranberries with no added water or sugar.
What began as an experiment with a cider press at home has grown into a value-added business that the couple hopes can eventually give their farm another market for its crop.
This fall will provide one of their biggest opportunities to put the juice in front of consumers. The Herzigers plan to offer samples at Warrens Cranberry Festival, where thousands of visitors come to the community at the center of Wisconsin cranberry country.
Katelyn and Ben believe the product needs to be tasted to be understood.
"It's cranberry juice like you've never tried," is how Katelyn describes it.
The juice is tart, as you might expect from a product made entirely from cranberries. Still, the Herzigers say the flavor differs from the cranberry juices people may have tried on a grocery store shelf. Their juice has a fresher taste, they said, without the bitterness associated with some shelf-stable products.
Getting to that point began without much thought of starting a beverage company. "We wanted to make our own fresh-squeezed cranberry juice," Katelyn said. "The very first batch we made at home using a cider press. It was really good."
The result raised a question: Could they make it commercially while keeping the characteristics they liked about that first batch?
Research led them to a processor in the Milwaukee area using high-pressure processing, commonly called HPP. Rather than using heat to pasteurize the juice, HPP uses extremely high pressure — about 87,000 pounds per square inch in their process.
That distinction matters to the Herzigers. They don't freeze the cranberries before pressing, and they don't heat the juice during processing. The finished product remains refrigerated and has a shelf life of approximately five months. The goal was to keep the product as close as practical to the fresh juice they first made themselves.
No water or sugar is added. The bottle contains only cranberry juice. “We want to make a product that’s natural and healthy and simple,” said Katelyn.
Finding a place for Wisconsin cranberry juice
Making the juice was only one part of the challenge. Once the Herzigers had a product, they had to figure out how to sell it.
That has meant learning an entirely different side of agriculture.
They have worked on labels and packaging, approached retailers and explained the product to store buyers. At the time of the interview, Beautiful Harvest was available in a few locations, with natural food stores and cooperatives among those most willing to try it.
"It's like having a second or third job," Ben said.
The beverage aisle is crowded, especially with products carrying the cranberry name. Consumers can choose from cranberry cocktails and a long list of blends pairing cranberries with apples, grapes, and other fruits.
The Herzigers are trying to establish Beautiful Harvest as something different. They believe their juice is the first cranberry juice produced using HPP and the first juice brand centered on all-Wisconsin cranberries. They think that distinction matters in a state that produces more cranberries than any other in the country.
“To our knowledge, we’re the very first all-Wisconsin cranberry juice brand, which is kind of astonishing given that Wisconsin’s number one in cranberries," said Ben, "We’re almost our own class.”
"It's just nice to see our own berries going into our own products," Katelyn said.
Both Katelyn and Ben work full time at the marsh. Beautiful Harvest isn't intended to take them away from cranberry farming. The idea is to build something from what they are already doing.
Taste will be the test
The Herzigers know some people will hear "100 percent cranberry juice" and immediately think of something extremely sour or bitter. Others may be more familiar with cranberry cocktails or juice blends, where sugar, water, or other fruit juices change the flavor.
“It’s definitely tart. I would say there’s a hint of sweetness," said Katelyn.
At Cranfest, they plan to have three samples available for people to try. They want visitors to taste the juice rather than judge it by what they remember from another cranberry product.
The couple believes the lack of heat processing makes a noticeable difference. It remains unmistakably cranberry, but they say the fresh juice retains more of the flavor they know from the fruit they grow.
That flavor could also give the product uses beyond drinking a glass of juice. The Herzigers have experimented with it in cocktails, including cranberry Old Fashioneds, mules, and margaritas. They can also see possibilities in sodas, ice cream and other foods where a concentrated cranberry flavor could be used as an ingredient.
Future Beautiful Harvest products could include other fruits, but the Herzigers want cranberries to remain central. They have discussed blends that would still contain at least 50 percent Wisconsin cranberry juice and maintain their preference for a simple ingredient list.
Those ideas remain possibilities. Right now, they're focused on establishing the original juice and convincing enough stores and consumers to give it a chance.
It still starts in the marsh
Whatever happens with Beautiful Harvest, the business begins with cranberry vines. One of the most common misconceptions the Herzigers encounter is that cranberries grow in water. They don't. The perennial vines grow in sandy, acidic soil, and the beds are flooded at specific times for harvest, winter protection, and other tasks.
Running the marsh requires the Herzigers to divide up a long list of jobs, from monitoring the crop to keeping the equipment running. Ben jokes that they have found a natural division of labor.
“We make a good team. She’s the expert on things that grow, and I’m the expert on things that go vroom,” Ben said. “Which we always have plenty of fixing. That’s farming. Endless equipment maintenance.”
At Zeda, the Herzigers manage about 50 acres of water spread among several ponds. During harvest they try to start with higher beds and move downhill, transferring water from one bed to the next rather than continually pumping new water into the system.
Once a bed is flooded, harvesting equipment moves through the vines and knocks the ripe cranberries loose. Air pockets inside the fruit allow the berries to float, producing the red-covered water that has become the iconic image of cranberry harvest.
"Watching those berries float up as we pluck them off, that never gets old," Ben said. “It’s been said that cranberry harvest is the world’s most beautiful harvest," Katelyn added.
Frost can threaten the crop during any month of the growing season, even July. The Herzigers jokingly call a midsummer frost watch "Christmas in July." Four sensors around the marsh monitor temperatures in the cranberry beds, where cold air can settle even when temperatures around the house are considerably warmer.
The sensors can automatically start irrigation engines when temperatures fall too low, sending water through sprinklers to protect the vines. Even with automation, Katelyn and Ben still go out about every two hours when the system is running to make sure the equipment is doing its job.
Other challenges range from flea beetles, which they are fighting with microscopic nematodes that attack the insect larvae, to stubborn weeds that sometimes have to be traced through the cranberry vines and pulled by hand.
Cranberry farming is a mix of sophisticated equipment and time-tested, simple solutions. Some days, the necessary tools are a five-gallon pail and a pair of pliers.
Cranberry harvest may be beautiful, but it doesn't always go smoothly. During last year's harvest, Ben thought he'd make it through the season without falling into the water. Then came the final bed on the final day. That streak ended — twice. Looking back, Ben and Katelyn laugh about the timing and falling into the water. "I'd say that summarizes what cranberry farming is like," Ben said.
Growing for more than yield
Beautiful Harvest could eventually change how the Herzigers think about cranberries themselves.
Cranberry beds are long-term investments. Renovating an older bed can require removing the existing vines and root layer, bringing in six inches to a foot of sand and replanting with cuttings or plugs. It may take roughly three years for that bed to return to production, and the vines planted there could remain for decades.
"You've got to think short term, and you've got to think really long term, both at the same time," Ben said.
Traditionally, yield is an important consideration when selecting varieties. But if more of Zeda's crop eventually goes into Beautiful Harvest products, the Herzigers may also need to think more about characteristics such as flavor and color.
The berry would no longer be simply the crop leaving the marsh. It would be an ingredient in a product carrying their own name and reputation.
For now, Beautiful Harvest remains a small part of a much larger cranberry operation, and Katelyn and Ben don't know how far the new business will go.
They do know where it started. A batch of cranberries went into a cider press at home. They tasted the juice and liked what came out. For growers accustomed to waiting through an entire season to see how a crop turns out, the next test is considerably simpler. Pour a sample and see what people think.
Their booth will be located on Aspen ave.- next to the shuttle drop off for Jellystone & McMullen, near red balloon parking.
Visit them at https://www.beautifulharvestjuice.com/
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