As documented by the Pilgrims, cranberries were found in abundance in Massachusetts in 1620 and rumor has it that they may have been served at the first Thanksgiving dinner, although we have no way of knowing for sure. Written recipes using cranberries date back to the 1700s and the first recorded cranberry crop in history dates back to 1816 in Dennis, Massachusetts on Cape Cod. Cranberries soon cemented their place in New England life by serving as a vital source of vitamin C for whalers and a valuable natural resource to residents. Contrary to popular belief, cranberries do not grow in water, but in sandy bogs or marshes. Because berries float, some bogs are flooded when the fruit is ready for harvesting, giving the illusion that the fruit grows in water.
Growers then use water-reel harvesting machines to loosen the cranberries from their vine.
They are then corralled onto conveyer belts and into waiting trucks, which take them to receiving stations and eventually processing plants. About 10 percent of the cranberries grown in Massachusetts are dry harvested and sold as fresh fruit. To dry harvest, growers use mechanical pickers with comb-shaped conveyer belts that pick the berries and carry them to attached burlap bags. Another 5,500 acres are cultivated in Chile, Quebec, and British Columbia. There are nearly 1,000 cranberry growers in America.