Cranberry Moms

Welcome to Cranmoms! My name is Alison Gilmore Carr and I am passionate about cranberry farming, my family, environmental policy, running and wholesome foods.   I grew up learning the art of cranberry farming on my parents’ bogs in Southeastern MA and vegetable farming on our small family garden.   I started my career on the farm weeding and now work 2 days a week helping to grow the crop doing both on the bog work, such as Integrated Pest Management and wetland consulting work through my dad’s consulting company.  Before I worked on the farm, I worked in the field of marketing and environmental policy.  I lived eight years in Manhattan before moving back to Massachusetts where the farm and my entire family reside.  I have a wonderful husband, John and an 18 month old daughter, Charlotte.

A little bit about my career path:

I have a BS in Agricultural Resource Managerial Economics (Business Management) from Cornell University and a Master’s in Environmental Policy from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs.  My undergraduate work focused on both marketing and applying business management techniques to agricultural businesses.  I started my career out of Cornell as a marketing manager at Pepperidge Farms working on the Goldfish brand and moved on to L’Oreal working on the Biolage brand.  After several years in the corporate world, I realized I wanted to study environmental policy and eventually apply my learnings to the family farm.  My Master’s work focused on international water policy and after graduating I worked for the Earth Institute at Columbia University.  I had an opportunity while living in NYC to work in the field of climate change for EcoSecurities and jumped at the opportunity to bring both my work in marketing and environmental policy together as the US Marketing Manager.  I am now part of Gilmore Consultants and have clients in both the agricultural and climate change areas.

This spring, my focus has moved away from corporate clients and marketing and shifted to cranberry farming and raising my daughter.   I have an amazing opportunity to shadow my father and learn the art of growing a successful cranberry crop.  I have learned so many new skills in the past few months as a cranberry farmer and am delighted to be returning to the family farm, which is my true passion.

My family, My passions:

I am both the fourth generation of Gilmore Cranberry Company and sixth generation of Makepeace Cranberry Company.  My parents own and operate 150 acres of bogs in Carver, Plymouth, Rochester and Hanson MA and sell their fruit to the Ocean Spray Cooperative.  Recently, my mom, was selected to be featured in Ocean Spray’s Heritage marketing campaign.  Mom was keen on having her entire family be a part of the campaign and you can check out my family at Ocean Spray’s Heritage website.

My husband John, works for Stroud Consulting and holds an MBA, Master’s of Engineering, and BS from Cornell University.  He also holds the Chartered Financial Analyst designation.  Before joining Stroud, John worked at Goldman Sachs as in their investment banking division and before that at JP Morgan.  John’s passions include playing the guitar and running.

I am an avid running, completing 5 marathons (New York (twice), Boston (twice) and Cape Cod), 6 half marathons and countless road races.  I have been running for 15 years and find the routine of running therapeutic!  I love gardening, knitting and cooking.  To learn more about my family please visit www.ourfamilycarr.blogspot.com