Vincent Family Cranberries really is a family business, with roots reaching back into 1957, when Ty and Tim’s grandparents, Elmer and Velna Robison, started the very first family cranberry bog in southern Oregon. Their mother Kay Robison (aka ‘Golly’) married a salmon fisherman named Bill Vincent. Bill wasn’t convinced that trawling would remain a lucrative business, so he took up his father-in-lawǯs trade and started farming the cranberry bog in Bandon, just .5 miles from the Pacific coast.
Right around that time, a big fruit company – you might know it, it rhymes with Smocean Spray – had really pushed cranberry juice blends in the market, bumping the price per pound of cranberries in Oregon from 20 cents to 60 cents (as of 2014, it’s now somewhere around 27 cents).
The cranberry bog in Bandon benefits from being so close to the Pacific Ocean. The year-round cool climate ensures a long growing season (about six to eight weeks longer than most others in the industry). The salty winds make for hardier cranberries that are smaller than most, with a deeper red color, more concentrated tart flavor but a higher natural sugar content, which the Vincents capitalize on byharvesting berries as late as possible when theyǯre at their ripest.
Cranberries are pressed into various juice blends or get infused with unsweetened apple juice and dried to a chewy but soft texture. The Vincents sell these dried cranberries solo or mixed with other dried fruits, like blueberries or cherries.