Cranberries in the Northwoods: Field Day at James Lake Farms
- Anneliese Abbott
- 2 days ago
- 5 min read
June 25, 2026
Little Tent on the Prairie is now Little Tent in the Big Woods of Wisconsin. I’m camped on the shore of beautiful White Deer Lake in the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest, surrounded by fragrant hemlock and cedar trees and hordes of large, hungry mosquitoes. I spent nearly twelve hours yesterday driving across North Dakota, Minnesota, and Wisconsin in the rain to get to my final campsite of this trip, where I fell asleep to the haunting call of a loon.
This morning is clear and sunny and the skeeters aren’t quite as bad, as long as I keep moving. I hike the two-mile trail around Luna Lake, fry up an egg for breakfast on my Whisper-Lite stove, and drive about half an hour to James Lake Farms for my final farm tour on this trip. Unlike my other tours, which I arranged privately, this is a TOPP field day coordinated by Marbleseed—at one of the largest organic cranberry farms in Wisconsin.
I actually scheduled my whole trip around this field day. I’ve never been to any kind of cranberry farm before, especially not an organic one, and it only adds a couple hours to the drive home. Plus, I’ll get to drive through Michigan’s Upper Peninsula tomorrow—along that beautiful stretch of US-2 on the sandy shore of Lake Michigan and across the iconic Mackinac Bridge—instead of having to go back through Chicago.
The big pole barn at James Lake Farms is full of people when I arrive. I check in, get some delicious cranberry-themed snacks—cranberry sourdough bread, cranberry-coconut bars, and homemade cranberry juice—and sit down at a table near the front. About half of the group are conventional cranberry growers curious about organic production; the other half are people like me who have never been to a cranberry farm before. It’s a surprisingly large turnout for such a remote location.
At 9:30, the farm owner—John Stauner—welcomes us and tells us about the history of his cranberry farm. He bought James Lake Marsh in 2006 and transitioned it to organic, then bought a second farm—Thunder Lake Marsh—in 2016. The two marshes total nearly 2,000 acres of land, with 177 acres currently in certified organic cranberry production.
Next, Allison Jonjak, UW-Madison’s first-ever Cranberry Outreach Extension Specialist, gives a very informative presentation on cranberry physiology and production. She’s incredibly passionate about cranberries and knows tons of interesting details about the history of cranberry production in Wisconsin. Sadly, this is her last presentation in her official role; she’s stepping down for health reasons. The job application for her position is open until September 16 if anyone’s interested.
John follows Allison’s lecture with more details on the specific challenges and practices of organic cranberry production. Since cranberries are native to the peat bogs of northern Wisconsin, they’re a good crop to grow organically. Managing pests and fertility is fairly straightforward; the biggest challenge is controlling weeds without herbicides.
After lunch, we head over to the packing shed, where John shows us all the packing and sorting equipment. The cranberry harvesting machines are lined up outside. Then we head out to the actual cranberry fields, which is pretty exciting. I’ve never seen cranberry plants before. They’re low vines that send up six-to-eight-inch uprights, which is where the flowers and fruits grow.
John tells us about bed renovation, weed management, and pollination. He uses both honeybees and bumblebees for pollination, but bumblebees are more reliable in the cold, wet climate. He mentions that researchers have identified five different species of bumblebees on his farm, including Bombus borealis and Bombus frigidus. An entomologist in the group gets really excited when he mentions Bombus frigidus. “I worked for the Forest Service for twenty-two years and could not find it in the national forest just a few miles to the east,” she says. “So it’s amazing that you guys have it here.”
As we walk over to another bed of cranberries, it suddenly starts raining—hard. We’re only a few hundred feet from the barn, but we’re all completely soaked by the time we get back inside. I’m wishing I hadn’t left my raincoat in my car, but it was sunny when we walked out to the field!
We stay in the barn for about an hour, listening to the panel discussion where John and an apple grower talk about transitioning to organic. By the time they’re done, it’s sunny again, so we hop in our cars and caravan over to Thunder Lake Marsh, where we see some more nice-looking cranberry fields. John’s favorite is a variety called Ben Lear, which forms a thick canopy and has fewer weeds than many of the other varieties.
Back at James Lake Marsh, we drive a short distance to see John’s pollinator planting, with lots of beautiful blooming flowers and some small native fescues. It starts raining lightly again, but this time I’m prepared and wearing my raincoat. Then the field day is over. Everyone else heads home and I head back to my campsite, where the clouds clear out for me to cook dinner and take another little hike around White Deer Lake.
There aren’t too many mosquitoes right on the sandy shore of the lake, so I sit down there in my camp chair and watch a curious turtle swim up to investigate. A loon calls in the distance. Fish splash in the water. It’s a totally different environment than the prairies where I’ve been all week, and what I love is that they’re both equally beautiful—in different ways.
Gabe Brown has figured out the best way to farm the mixed grass prairies of central North Dakota, and John Stauner has figured out what works best in the Northwoods of Wisconsin. Gabe’s favorite grazing plants like Cicer milkvetch wouldn’t grow at all on the acidic peat bogs, and John’s cranberries wouldn’t grow on the prairie. Both farmers are successful because they’ve listened to the environment and learned to grow a crop that thrives there naturally.
And that, I think, is one of the keystones of organic farming—finding the right crop and system for your environment. The United States is a huge country with dozens of different climatic zones. There’s no one-size-fits-all farming system that will work everywhere. A system that may be in harmony with the land in one area may actually be destructive in another. A good organic farmer—like John Stauner—listens to the land. And that’s why he’s successful.
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