Every fall before the harvest, the berries of carefully irrigated cranberry shrubs ripen to a deep red. But in most areas where they’re grown, cranberries aren’t picked by hand. Farmers first flood the beds with water until the vines are submerged, then drive harvesters through these bogs to separate the berries from their stems. The picked fruit will finally rise to the surface of the water, creating the floating pools of pink and red that appear so vividly in these photos.

If you’re curious to see more of the story behind the cranberries on your Thanksgiving table, look through our "cranberry bog" clusters.

A Happy Thanksgiving to all of you celebrating today.

Photos from LoraleaDawnKirby, neggatiff, SupersonicNJ, and Chase Schiefer.