by Tracy Leonard-Turi, WeForum
Highbush Blueberries: The Berry with a Pedigree
For anyone who makes a sport of chasing down the next big superfruit or creating Instagrammable moments over neon-hued smoothie bowls; do we really need to buy acai pulp its own ticket onto a shipping container out of the Amazon River delta? New Jersey already grows its own nutritious superfruit right in our backyards. Cultivated highbush blueberries, which are indigenous to the New Jersey Pine Barrens, are bursting with functional properties and can be found at any grocery store or farm stand for a very reasonable price.
Many people associate New Jersey with cranberries, but according to the New Jersey Department of Agriculture, in 2018 blueberries were the state’s top crop, with a production value greater than $62 million. And since 2004, thanks to the efforts of fourth grade students at Veteran’s Memorial Elementary School in Brick, blueberries are also the official state fruit.
The wild highbush blueberry was first cultivated at the beginning of the last century, thanks to the insight of Elizabeth Coleman White, a Quaker woman from Whitesbog and the daughter of a landowner and cranberry farmer in the Pine Barrens.
Today, hundreds of thousands of highbush blueberries are cultivated each year on almost 40,000 acres of land across the country. They have become a high-demand fruit and the primary source of all fresh blueberries around the world, grown on almost every continent, as well as Japan. It is estimated that some 100,000 varieties cultivated on Elizabeth White’s land account for the majority of the cultivars grown today.
Blueberries are indigenous to North America, from Mexico northward to the Arctic plains, but the highbush blueberry is native to the Pine Barrens in the southern portion of the state, where the soil is sandy and acidic, suitable for blueberries and cranberries, but little else. In the early part of the twentieth century, Elizabeth collaborated with Frederick Vernon Coville, a USDA botanist, to cultivate the wild highbush blueberry bushes growing abundantly throughout the area. Coville had experimented with blueberry cultivation and found that his rich garden soils had a less acidic pH, which killed off the plantings. After reading one of his USDA reports, Elizabeth, who had been dabbling in agricultural science in search of ways to eradicate cranberry’s natural enemies, reached out and offered up her land as a research lab of sorts. She was also looking for alternative ways to extend the growing season by adding blueberries to her existing crops.
Highbush Blueberries: The Berry with a Pedigree
For anyone who makes a sport of chasing down the next big superfruit or creating Instagrammable moments over neon-hued smoothie bowls; do we really need to buy acai pulp its own ticket onto a shipping container out of the Amazon River delta? New Jersey already grows its own nutritious superfruit right in our backyards. Cultivated highbush blueberries, which are indigenous to the New Jersey Pine Barrens, are bursting with functional properties and can be found at any grocery store or farm stand for a very reasonable price.
Many people associate New Jersey with cranberries, but according to the New Jersey Department of Agriculture, in 2018 blueberries were the state’s top crop, with a production value greater than $62 million. And since 2004, thanks to the efforts of fourth grade students at Veteran’s Memorial Elementary School in Brick, blueberries are also the official state fruit.
The wild highbush blueberry was first cultivated at the beginning of the last century, thanks to the insight of Elizabeth Coleman White, a Quaker woman from Whitesbog and the daughter of a landowner and cranberry farmer in the Pine Barrens.
Today, hundreds of thousands of highbush blueberries are cultivated each year on almost 40,000 acres of land across the country. They have become a high-demand fruit and the primary source of all fresh blueberries around the world, grown on almost every continent, as well as Japan. It is estimated that some 100,000 varieties cultivated on Elizabeth White’s land account for the majority of the cultivars grown today.
Blueberries are indigenous to North America, from Mexico northward to the Arctic plains, but the highbush blueberry is native to the Pine Barrens in the southern portion of the state, where the soil is sandy and acidic, suitable for blueberries and cranberries, but little else. In the early part of the twentieth century, Elizabeth collaborated with Frederick Vernon Coville, a USDA botanist, to cultivate the wild highbush blueberry bushes growing abundantly throughout the area. Coville had experimented with blueberry cultivation and found that his rich garden soils had a less acidic pH, which killed off the plantings. After reading one of his USDA reports, Elizabeth, who had been dabbling in agricultural science in search of ways to eradicate cranberry’s natural enemies, reached out and offered up her land as a research lab of sorts. She was also looking for alternative ways to extend the growing season by adding blueberries to her existing crops.
