MIDDLEBORO, Mass. (AP) – Weeks before Thanksgiving, part of the cranberries on plates On Thursday, they were floating on the Rocky Meadow Swamp in southeastern Massachusetts.

The cranberries have colored this pond crimson. Several workers, standing in waist-deep water, gently float the berries to a pump that sucks them into a waiting truck. There, the berries are passed through a system that separates them from leaves and vines and transported to a processing plant, where they are ultimately turned into sauce, juice or sweet and dried berries.

The native swamp plants that produce cranberries begin growing in May. When they are ready to be harvested, farmers flood their swamps with water and send out a picking machine to shake the berries from the vines. Then more water is added to the bog and the released cranberries rise to the surface.

“The season has been quite good this year. We had a pretty good crop,” said Steve Ward, a second-generation cranberry farmer at the edge of his swamp.

The harvest runs from September to early November and Ward is expected to produce between 15,000 and 20,000 barrels, the best harvest he has had in three years. About 80% of those berries go to Ocean Spray, a major producer of cranberry products in the US

This swamp is one of nearly 300 swamps in Massachusetts covering about 14,000 acres, and this year farmers are expected to produce 2.2 million barrels of cranberries, with one barrel accounting for 100 pounds (45 kilograms). That is an increase of 12% compared to last year. Massachusetts is the second largest cranberry producing region in the US after Wisconsin, and the industry there dates back to the 19th century.

Despite the industry’s size, farmers in the state have weathered several challenges over the years, from trade wars to falling prices and a glut of berries. Some have sold their marshes or moved to diversify by welling solar panels around their swamps. Ward has two solar sites near its marshes and is considering installing floating solar installations on its waterholes and reservoirs.

Ward said farmers also need to adapt to a changing climate — which could lead to a lower harvest this year, according to the Massachusetts Cranberries, an industry advocacy group.

“We’ve had some issues with the warm weather and had one of the longest dry spells we’ve ever had,” he said. “We are having more and more days of 90 degrees (32 degrees Celsius). The cranberry plants just don’t like this kind of weather. Our average temperatures, especially at night, are higher. Cranberries need cooler temperatures at night.”