PITTSVILLE, Wis. (WSAW) – For more than two decades, students from Pittsville High School have capitalized on their close proximately to area cranberry bogs.
Each fall, Pittsville High School FFA students and alumni demonstrate their knowledge of the crop by giving tours of how cranberries are produced. One of the final student-led tours of the season took place on Monday. Each season, around 1,000 people take part in the tours. Among visitors are third and fourth-grade students and event adult tour groups. The high school believes it’s the only one in the county to offer a cranberry science course.
Lindsay Meissner is the Agriculture Education Instructor and FFA Advisor at Pittsville. She said 2024 was a busy year.
“We’re well over 1,200. So we had a very large tour season this year,” said Meissner.
She said 24 years ago, a Pittsville agricultural instructor, local FFA members and cranberry growers got together to find a way to educate students on the importance of the plant.
Now the roles are reversed and the students are doing the teaching.
“Our students get to highlight the importance of the cranberry industry to Wood County, the state of Wisconsin, and our nation,” said Meissner.
The tours begin at the school. The group then heads to a cranberry marsh to see how the fruit is harvested before traveling to a receiving station for the production process.
She said the cranberries from the marshes on the tours will be made into two products: sweet and dried cranberries or cranberry juice concentrate.
Although the tours have ended this season, sign-ups for the 2025 will open in January.The charge for the tour is $25 per person. The funds from the cranberry tours help pay for student scholarships, trips and other member-related activities.
Click here to visit’s the school’s web page.
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