Double Trouble in New Jersey

No, I didn't get into any trouble :) We visited Double Trouble State Park last weekend. Double Trouble is in the Pinelands area of New Jersey. The Pinelands are very different from the heavy industry and thousands of homes that most people think of when they think "Jersey." Double Trouble is the name of a very small town that is now deserted, but was once devoted to mining, then lumbering, then cranberrying. Several bogs still exist and are harvested by the State.

A small group of mallards was enjoying the shallow water of the bog. The reddish vegetation is cranberry plants.


This is the view looking from the cranberry packing shed down across three bogs:


And here is a close up of the plants themselves. You can still see a few berries hanging around.

We learned that the cranberry plants are grown in bogs that are flooded in the fall, which eases the harvest because the berries float to the top. The water is kept in the bogs through winter to protect the plants from frost. These bogs are still worked more as a cultural aspect of the state park, but large commercial growers have bogs in the area, too. As you drive through the Pinelands, you can see large collections of these bogs, interspersed with lots of pines, and large fields of blueberries. I need to come back to this area during harvest time!