Before blueberries became a supermarket staple, they grew wild and were considered nearly impossible to cultivate successfully. Elizabeth Coleman White grew up at Whitesbog, her family’s cranberry farm in the New Jersey Pine Barrens, and became determined to change that. In 1911, White partnered with USDA botanist Frederick Coville. She recruited local woodsmen to search the Pine Barrens for wild bushes producing the largest and best-tasting berries, while Coville used those plants to develop reliable cultivated varieties. Their work paid off in 1916, when Whitesbog produced the first commercial crop of cultivated highbush blueberries. What began on a New Jersey farm helped lay the foundation for the modern blueberry industry...making Elizabeth White one of the state’s most important, yet often overlooked, agricultural pioneers