Peter Genovese | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
The bog can be found in Hog Wallow — yes, you read that right. The colorfully-named section of Washington Township, Burlington County, is named for the feral pigs that once roamed here. Haines, Pine Island’s office manager and daughter of Pine Island CEO Bill Haines Jr., is driving down a bumpy narrow road in her trusty red pickup. One slight turn of the steering wheel, and you’ll end up in a watery ditch. The bogs here all have names — Otter. Otis. Telephone Hill. Panama.
About 400 million pounds of cranberries — Pine Island accounts for about 30 million of that total — are consumed in the U.S. every year. Cranberry juice, fresh cranberries, dried cranberries, cranberry sparkling water, cranberry energy drinks, cranberry sauce — these are just a few of cranberry-derived products., Marcus Urann, who turned surplus cranberries into a sauce he called Ocean Spray in 1912 .
But cranberry growing is still largely manual labor; Pine Island employs 31 full-time and 13 seasonal workers, many from Puerto Rico and many who have worked here for decades. Junior Colon has worked at Pine Island for 46 years, Harry Mick for 43 years, Bob Heritage for 42 and Gerardo Ortiz for 41. Caesar Colon, Junior’s brother, has been here for 38 years.
The Jersey growers that are part of Ocean Spray are eager to share knowledge with each other: ”If one farmer tries something that might work, they’ll call somebody and say, hey, I tried this, I think it might work in your farm,” Haines explains.