ALBANY TOWNSHIP – It’s only fitting that Rick and Linda Woodward give out Thanksgiving presents to friends each year.

Their gifts, after all, are cranberries – a traditional part of the Thanksgiving menu – that come from their 2-acre cranberry bog where they harvest organic berries.

The Woodwards, who live in Stoughton, Mass., and travel each weekend to their operation in western Maine, have taken what was just a piece of idle land and turned it into a small business.

This year’s crop yielded 2,500 to 3,000 pounds, which they sell to stores in Norway, Paris, Oxford, Bethel and Raymond. People also come to the farm to pick their own or buy pre-picked berries.

The Woodwards recently built a barn on their property, where they sort and package their berries.

It has been nine years since the Woodwards transformed their 15 acres into a small cranberry enterprise, and they’re now beginning to relish the rewards.

When they are in Massachusetts, Linda works as a dental hygienist, Rick as a general contractor.

From April through December, they drive 31/2 hours from Stoughton to Albany Township each Friday night and generally return home Sunday.

“It’s not a high-pressure thing,” Rick Woodward said.

For Thanksgiving they gave away fresh and frozen berries, and whole and jellied cranberry sauce. For their own family Thanksgiving dinner, they intended to cook a cranberry apple pie and cranberry nut squares.

Next up, Rick Woodward said, is cranberry wine.