Visit to the Pacific Coast Cranberry Museum

Yesterday was a busy day, and I was surprised how tired I was by the end. I slept luxuriously for nine hours, and in the morning my muscles reminded me that clam digging is more work than it seems at the time. The weather was already rainy, windy, and cold – a more typical January day on the Washington coast. I’m SO glad I arrived yesterday and didn’t do a second day like I had once considered.

When I finally had eaten and gotten packed up, I topped off my cooler to the brim to preserve my precious cargo. I think I overdid it a bit, but ice is cheap compared to the trouble it takes to get razor clams (can you even buy them anywhere? I don’t know). I stopped by the beach for one last drive on the sand, and hit an amazing bakery to pick up a sandwich for lunch (I’m always a sucker for a bakery). My last stop was the Cranberry Museum.

You could really nerd out at this sacred shrine to my favorite fruit. Washington is one of the nation’s biggest cranberry producers, mostly in Pacific County. They first started growing cranberries there in the 1880s. Did you know that there are hundreds of varieties of cranberries, but only three are grown commercially in the US (used to be one)? It turns out there are wet and dry harvesting methods, and that mostly the wet method is used in Washington. There were once “cranberry railroads” that went through the fields to aid in harvesting, back when they were using the dry method more. The museum talks in great detail about the history of the local industry, and about all the technicalities of farming cranberries. There’s also a walking tour, which I didn’t do because of the rain.

I had to restrain myself at the gift shop. You’ve all heard of cranberry juice, sauce, chocolate, and scones. In this store though they had cranberry barbecue sauce, mustard, honey, syrup, jam, butter, cheese, chutney, vinegar, vinaigrette, wine, pancake mix, soap, lotion, and Chapstick. They even had exotic things like brandied cranberries and cran-horseradish sauce. I settled for a cookbook and some marmalade.

A few minutes after leaving I was hit by a relentless torrent that lasted the entire day. The slippery roads and poor visibility made for a stressful four-hour drive. I returned safely though, with razor clams still frozen, some marmalade, and a few new skills under my belt.