Estate Living November 2016 Digital Issue | Page 68

RED &
gold
confetti

When it comes to floral attractions, it’s hard
to beat the Western Cape, but the northern
hemisphere does have a few unique plantbased attractions that are well worth travelling
to see. So, just as our spring flowers were
winding down, I got on a plane and headed
north to see New England in its red phase –
so called for both the renowned boreal autumn
foliage and the cranberry harvest.
The first thing I did after waking up in Boston
was to take a stroll through a confetti of red and
gold leaves down to the Charles River, which
runs through the city. Most of the trees were
still basically green, but there were explosions
of bright red, gold and orange, and I had to
concede that Boston is as pretty as Cape Town
– but different. And then we headed off into
the wilds of Massachusetts to hunt down some
cranberries, and witness the unique harvesting
process.
Cranberries grow on small bushes in lowlying areas called bogs (although they’re not
really bogs). When the crop is ripe, the fields
are flooded, and the bushes are raked over
to remove the fruit, which then floats to the
surface. Huge plastic booms contain the berries,
and wader-clad workers “herd” them into
ever tighter and tighter circles towards a big
underwater suction pipe. Then they disappear