Harvest rituals: Cranberries
Cranberries are one of only three fruits native to North America. They are hard to grow, tricky to harvest and too sour to eat unless adulterated with plenty of sugar. In autumn, the dike-rimmed bogs where they're grown are flooded and a water-reel churns up the water, dislodging the fruit, which floats to the surface. The berries are gently "corralled" by workers with booms and rakes, then vacuumed up into trucks on shore. As frost settles on the land, the cranberries sparkle like rubies in a bog.