Neva Moore, a cranberry grower who also owns stock in the Ocean Spray cooperative, closes up the cranberry bog at Union Station late today after spending two days in Washington telling tourists and officials about the nutritional merits of cranberries and the public policy issues that growers face. (Jerry Hagstrom/The Hagstrom Report)

If farmers around the country are looking for a way to tell official Washington about their products and their policy concerns, they might take a cue from the Ocean Spray cooperative, which brought a bog to Washington’s Union Station and won visits from senators and congressional aides — and also got attention for the value of cranberries to consumers.

Massachusetts Democratic Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey both visited the bog and many congressional aides also came despite — or perhaps because of — the government shutdown. The bog led some reporters to write stories about issues such as the need for trade promotion programs in the farm bill and concerns that the school lunch program will limit the sugar that is needed to go along with the tart berries.

But visibility for the cranberry industry’s issues was not the bog display’s primary purpose. Ocean Spray’s “Bogs Across America” program has been acquainting consumers with cranberries for nine years. There's a bog at the Epcot Center in Florida, and the Washington bog will travel to New York’s Rockefeller Center on Thursday, a public relations representative said.

Neva Moore, a Burlington County, N.J., cranberry grower-owner in the Ocean Spray cooperative, interrupted the harvest on her farm to staff the bog in Washington, and said she had most enjoyed the visits from school children.

“I hope they go away knowing where cranberries come from and how beneficial they are,” she said.

• Roll Call — Cranberry Growers Seek Visibility in Farm Bill, Dietary Guideline Debates
• The Washington Post — America’s cranberry growers want to tell you about their versatile fruit
• Washingtonian — A Huge Cranberry Bog Has Taken Over Union Station
• U.S. News & World Report — A Cranberry Bog Comes to Washington
• Ocean Spray Bogs Across America Tour