Our History

Our owners, Wayne and Tom Gardner, were introduced to the cranberry industry by transporting cranberries for local growers and processors. With the inception of Gardner Cranberry in the early 1990’s they started growing their own cranberries with two 1.5 acre bogs. Presently we harvest and process over 1,400 acres of their own bogs.

Seeing a need for additional fresh cranberry cleaning/receiving stations in central Wisconsin, the Gardner’s built their first plant in Pittsville in 1996. In June 2003 they built their second raw material cleaning/receiving station and warehouse. 

In 2005 they entered the cranberry processing arena with completion of their 78,750 square foot cranberry juice processing facility. Badger State Fruit Processing has annual production of over 2 million gallons of cranberry juice concentrate and 5 million gallons of single strength juice. Gardner added Premium Dried Cranberries to their product portfolio in 2013 with the completion of their state of the art sweetened dried cranberry facility.

The annual production of the plant is 25 million pounds of finished product with further expansion to be completed in 2016.

In addition to a lot of hard work and dedication, Gardner’s rapid growth can be attributed to the steady increase in the amount of cranberries grown in Wisconsin. According to current statistics Wisconsin produces nearly 60% of the cranberries grown in the United States.

Wisconsin produces nearly 60% of the cranberries grown in the United States.