As in every field, there are amateurs and experts, and when it comes to cranberries, Stan Lowell falls into the second category. Originally from Massachusetts, he has worked in the industry since his youth and New Brunswick is fortunate to host this cranberry connoisseur.
Stan’s wife Anne-Marie, a native of New Brunswick, is responsible for bringing him to the area. They met on a blind date and have been involved in cranberry production together ever since. Anne-Marie’s family could barely believe that Stan wanted to invest and purchase land for cranberry production (a not-so-popular fruit in New Brunswick when they first settled here in 1988.) “It took some convincing” says Stan, “they all thought I was crazy!”
Luckily, Anne-Marie shares Stan’s enthusiasm for the red berry bogs and they have both dedicated their careers to cranberries. They have 10 acres in commercial organic cranberry production, “a good size for two people dry-picking; any more than that is too much work,” says Stan. Dry-picking is a labour-intensive harvesting method for fresh eating cranberries that is rarely used anymore. This is partially because the wet-picking method is so much simpler, but also because the demand for fresh fruit is far below the demand for berries for juicing. Dry-picking is much better for fresh fruit use, as the berries are much less likely to suffer bruising and damage as they are with the wet-harvesting method.
Stan and Anne-Marie’s 10-acre berry bog is located in St. Louis, Kent County, New Brunswick, surrounded by conventional cranberry operations. Although both Anne-Marie and Stan have always aligned themselves with organic values, they succumbed to the pressure to grow conventionally for almost twenty years. “In the 1970’s we started growing organic cranberries, but there wasn’t enough demand for the fresh berries and we had to expand to pay our mortgages so we went conventional. We’ve always been organic at heart though, we’ve always kept an organic vegetable garden!” Their cranberry bogs have now been certified organic since 2001.
It is their belief in the method of organics that finally won over the need to make money. Stan explains how the considerable toxic after-effects of conventional cranberry production motivated them to take up organic production once again. “In a conventional operation, the water used to flood...area” (see page for sentence break-up ideas)
When asked about his hobbies, Stan will describe the forty-four varieties of cranberries he grows in an effort to conserve those that are no longer popular. Some have a sweeter flavour, while others ripen earlier. Many of them, such as the MacFarlane variety, were popular in New Brunswick before the outbreak of the “false blossom disease” that affected many of the region’s crops in the early 1930’s. Around that time, the Stevens variety appeared and helped eliminate the disease, however, it is now rare to find any other varieties being grown in New Brunswick. This is why Stan has made it his pastime to collect and continue to propagate these old varieties.
“Cranberries seem to have rubbed off on me,” says Stan, smiling. Perhaps a bit of an understatement; Stan’s love of cranberries and cranberry production has led him to be considered one of the top organic cranberry producers in New Brunswick and beyond.
