Fort Langley Cranberry Festival 2018
byThe annual Fort Langley Cranberry Festival returns Saturday, October 6, 2018 celebrating the harvest and history of the cranberry in the region.
Fort Langley Cranberry Festival
Where: Fort Langley Village (free) & Fort Langley Historic Site (free for the day)
When: Saturday, October 6, 2018 from 10:00am to 4:00pm
RSVP on Facebook for info »
Join over 60,000 other people from all over the region for this community celebration. The Cranberry Festival market in the village will have over 70 vendors along with a pancake breakfast at 8:00am to kick off the festivities for the day.
Over at Fort Langley National Historic Site, enjoy free admission for the day! Celebrate cranberries at Fort Langley National Historic Site while learning the history of local uses of native cranberries by Indigenous people. Did you know the Hudson’s Bay Company exported cranberries to California during the gold rush? Put on rubber boots and jump into the popular cranberry stomp, as well as other farm-related games.
About BC Cranberries
I researched cranberries around the region for a piece I wrote for Tourism Vancouver a few years ago and found all kinds of interesting facts:
- The cranberry is one of only three commercially-grown fruits that are native to North America.
- Traditionally, cranberries were hot trading commodities at Fort Langley (aka the Birthplace of BC) as local First Nations used them for food, dyes, and medicine. They would trade cranberries for HBC blankets, beads, and other items. In fact in 1858, cranberries were actually worth more than salmon.
- Of all the cranberries harvested in Canada every year, about 60% are grown for Massachusetts-based Ocean Spray, to which most BC cranberry growers belong as a cooperative — as a result 90% of BC cranberries are shipped to the USA.
- Approximately 50% of BC’s crop is used to make sweetened dried cranberries, 40% is made into juice, 9% is sold whole frozen and 1% is sold fresh, according to the Government of BC.
