Before Elizabeth White came to be known as “The Blueberry Queen,” wild lowbush blueberries grew prolifically throughout the vast forests of south central New Jersey, known as the Pine Barrens.
Often referred to as huckleberries, they were gathered and enjoyed by natives, but these smaller fruits were frustratingly inconsistent in size and flavor.
PHOTOS: Top, blueberries on the bush. Below, the pie eating contest at the Whitesbog Blueberry Festival. Photos by Tom Shuff, courtesy of Joseph J. White, Inc.
The White family property was long established as a cranberry farm, but eldest daughter Elizabeth was determined to add another crop that could be harvested earlier in the growing season.
All her efforts to cultivate blueberry bushes failed until she met Dr. Frederick Coville of the United States Department of Agriculture. With his knowledge of horticulture and her ingenuity, the plump, sweet berries we enjoy today were born.
White offered to pay her neighbors to search a 20-mile radius of her home and bring back the best bushes they could find. Armed with sample bottles, labels, preservative, and a cleverly devised gauge to judge the size of the berries, the forests were scoured. Anyone who brought back a particularly promising bush would be paid a $2 stipend for it, plus a certain amount per hour for the time they had spent hunting.
Sadly, 90 percent of the transplants did not survive, but six bushes proved not only hardy but yielded larger, sweeter, superior fruit. One bush in particular, known as the ‘Rubel,’ after its finder Rube Leek, became the mother of all highbush blueberries.
Together, White and Coville “created fields of uniform, big-fruited, tasty berries perfect for shipment and distribution,” says Mark Ehlenfeldt, spokesperson for the Whitesbog Preservation Trust.
Not only did this prove a financially profitable venture for the Whites, they eventually sold plants to established producers around the country. The result? Recent statistics show New Jersey’s annual production of 49 million pounds in fourth place behind Michigan, Georgia, and Oregon.
Today Whitesbog Village is a preserved historic agricultural town and includes 3000 acres of forests, fields, bogs, ponds, and reservoirs which are part of Brendan T. Byrne State Forest. The Joseph J. White Company still grows blueberries on the property.
In addition to living history programs, visitors can enjoy hiking, biking, horseback riding, bird watching, canoeing, kayaking and fishing.
This week’s festival will “celebrate everything blueberry,” says Ehlenfeldt. There will be music, educational tours and lectures, crafters, artists, pick-your-own berries and the very popular pie eating contest.
So boogie to the bog for a berry happy birthday!
SUZANNE ZIMMER LOWERY is a food writer, pastry chef and culinary instructor at a number of New Jersey cooking schools. Find out more about her at suzannelowery.com.