This television segment was first televised on the nationally syndicated cable show Rebecca's Garden on 11/17/96, and was shown again during November for several years afterwards.

Betty:

These bogs were basically started by my grandfather. In the thirties he planted the main part of the acreage, and then my father and uncle worked it all through the fifties.

When I was a kid I thought this was the absolutely perfect way to make a living. What I really hated was that school started at the same time as harvest. Just as I was getting into it they'd make me go to school. I thought that was a real cheat.

Narrator:

Farming was not considered an option for women when Betty Brown was growing up. She went off to college and earned a PhD in American literature and built a career as an academic librarian. Six years ago when her father decided to retire and sell the land, Betty traded her career for a chance to run the family farm. She has not looked back.

Betty:

We run about 35 acres of cranberries and about 200 acres of support land. When you think of some bogs, like in Wisconsin, you think of perfect rectangles, okay? This is New England, so everything is tucked in nests and hollows. Our bogs conform to the land. So in some senses it's not very easy to harvest.

Some times it takes a while. We use paddles. We sweep all the berries off. My father has a rule: "you don't have to be too fussy, just get every berry."

I alternate between being really worried and really focused on what I'm doing. And every once in awhile I'll be standing in the water, and it'll be a perfect day like this one. You be warm and comfortable. The sun will be shining. There'll be foliage all around you and there's these gorgeous red berries, and you just go - it can't get any better than this.

And then there's those other days. It's about 45 degrees. There's a 30 mile per hour wind and it's raining. You're wet from the knees down because your waders are leaking and you've got rain running down your neck. That's when you don't think it gets better than this.