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A cranberry harvester is a small, convenient device that can be used to collect berries much faster and with better quality than the classic method - by hand. It is recommended for every cranberry picker to have. You can simply purchase a combine harvester, since they are produced by industry and are commercially available. But you can also make it yourself, with your own hands from available materials, it is not difficult and does not take much time.
How to make a cranberry harvester for harvesting cranberries with your own hands
Anyone who has ever picked cranberries knows how difficult it is to pick small berries by hand and how long it takes to fill the basket to the top. It is much easier not to pick them each individually, but to use a simple device for harvesting - a cranberry harvester.
It’s not difficult to make it yourself; you don’t need any special knowledge or skills to do it. It is best to use strong, dry wood or a sheet of thin metal as the material for manufacturing. In order to make a combine you will need:
- a piece of galvanized steel or sheet metal;
- wooden planks no more than 1 cm thick;
- hard thick wire for making teeth;
- a piece of wood or a piece of metal plate for a handle;
- metal scissors;
- hacksaw or jigsaw;
- drill;
- quick-drying glue;
- self-tapping screws
Sequential steps for making a homemade cranberry harvester:
- Cut out a pattern from thick paper according to the drawing.
- Place it on a sheet of metal.
- Cut out the required parts with scissors.
- One by one, bend them so that you can connect them into a single whole.
- Make teeth from wire in the required quantity.
- To secure them, you will need a fastening element, which can be made from a small wooden block.
- Drill holes in it 1.5–2 cm deep and wide according to the diameter of the rods.
- Make a handle from wood or metal of such a size that it fits comfortably in your hand.
- Bend the wire, coat the ends with a layer of glue and insert into the holes of the fastening strip, press and wait until they stick.
- Screw the resulting structure to the body with self-tapping screws.
- Make a handle and also attach it to another plank.
- Connect the body and sides with self-tapping screws.
- Using pliers, bend the edges of the body near the teeth located on the edge.
The second version of the berry harvester, which can be built at home, is made of wood. It’s even easier to make: just cut the planks to the required sizes and connect them together with glue or self-tapping screws. The teeth can be carefully cut with a jigsaw or hacksaw on the front edge of the body and sanded down the cut areas. To make the wood last longer, it can be varnished and dried. Alternatively, you can make the teeth from metal rods.
Drawing of a cranberry harvester
To make it easier to understand what parts a cranberry processor consists of and how to assemble it, you can take a look at the figure below. All component parts must be made, also adhering to the drawing, so that they fit well together.
Principle of operation
This small device does not damage ripe berries or the plants themselves during operation, ensuring quick and gentle harvesting of cranberry fruits. A manual cranberry harvester in appearance resembles a voluminous bucket or scoop with teeth or arc-shaped cutters on the front edge: they are used to pry up and pick berries from the branches. The distance between them should be slightly smaller than the size of an average cranberry: this is enough for the fruit to pass between them and come off. These teeth are used to pick the berries, then they fall into a container (device body), which is gradually filled with them. When this happens, the harvest can be poured into a basket.
The cranberry harvester is very easy to use and efficient: the branches and leaves of plants pass through the teeth, so they do not get tangled or torn. The device has a rounded shape, so it can be used to collect cranberries growing in small depressions. Another advantage of a cranberry harvester: its use allows you to speed up the process of picking berries by 3-5 times compared to the usual manual method.
Harvesting cranberries using a combine harvester
Picking berries with a home-made cranberry harvester is very simple - just place the tines under the cranberry branches and carefully lift it above the plants: the berries will easily break off and roll into a large container. You can learn how to quickly harvest cranberries using a combine harvester in just a few hours. But, despite its simplicity, the cranberry harvesting technology requires the implementation of certain rules. For example, you should not jerk the harvester sharply if its teeth are tangled in twigs and leaves. If you pull, you can tear off shoots or, even worse, tear out the entire plant by the roots, after which it will dry out.
It is also important to consider the time of harvesting cranberry fruits. It has been experimentally established that it is much better to pick berries when they have reached full ripeness, and not earlier. The berries themselves can ripen separately, but unripe ones will spoil faster and will not be as tasty, aromatic and healthy. In addition, picking unripe berries is harder; they sit more firmly on the branches, so picking will require some effort and will take more time. If it so happens that a certain number of leaves and twigs are torn off along with the berries, then you do not need to get rid of them immediately: they can be collected, dried, and then brewed along with ordinary tea and drunk as a vitamin or medicinal drink.
Conclusion
A cranberry harvester is a very simple device in design and use, which is recommended for any experienced or novice cranberry picker to have on their farm. It is easy to make it yourself from materials that are always at hand, using a simple detailed drawing. A cranberry harvester will be an excellent assistant when picking small berries, speeding up the process and making it more comfortable and of higher quality.
