LAKEVILLE – This season was a berry good harvest for Conway Farms.

“I was expecting 2,500 barrels [of cranberries] but I think I have almost 3,100,” said Conway Farms owner George Conway.

Although the excessive rain cranberry growers experienced this year could have caused bog rot, Conway said that it helped him this season.

“I didn’t have to irrigate that much,” said Conway.

According to Conway, he planted his first bog at Conway Farms in 1986.

“I was in the excavating business for 25 years, so I had the equipment to build them,” said Conway.

Conway Farms utilized a dry harvest method for 30 years according to Conway. A dry harvest involves using walk-behind machines to rake the berries off the vines.

Now, the farm uses a wet harvest method, which takes advantage of the air-filled pockets inside the fruit allowing them to float up to the surface of the flooded bog.

“[The wet harvest] is a lot quicker,” said Conway. “I'm getting a lot more berries out of it.”

According to Conway, the farm grows two varieties of cranberries including Stevens and Howes.

“The Howes are doing a lot better than the Stevens this year, which is great but usually the Stevens do a lot better,” said Conway.

During the last leg of the harvesting season, cranberry pickers used water reels, a ride-on device used to loosen the berries off the vine.

As they operated the water reels, pickers placed plastic pipes down to keep track of where they picked.

Now that all of the berries have been harvested, Conway said that the next step is to prepare the bog for the colder months.

“We will flood the bogs up to protect [the berries] from frost,” said Conway.