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Cranberries and Blueberries

From New Jersey Wilderness to Markets around the World

By Marilyn Loeser

New Jersey: the Garden State.

Anyone flying into Newark may laugh at the state’s nickname, especially if they never leave the confines of industry, skyscrapers and multilane highways.

Abraham Browning of Camden is credited for giving New Jersey its nickname. Browning called New Jersey the Garden State while speaking at the Philadelphia Centennial exhibition in 1876. Browning said the Garden State is an immense barrel, filled with good things to eat and open at both ends, with Pennsylvanians grabbing from one end and New Yorkers from the other.

On a recent visit to Whitesbog Village in Brendan T. Byrne State Forest near Browns Mills, I learned one of the reasons why, more than a century later, the nickname is still used.

From iron to cranberries

From the 1760's to just before the Civil War, an important industry in the state was iron production. But the need to dredge the land and divert water in its manufacture devastated the land. Ironically, it was this land abuse that set the stage for cranberry, and later, blueberry cultivation.

The American cranberry grows naturally in swampy areas of the North American temperate-zone and the plant thrived in the strip mines.

Realizing the potential cranberry market, Colonel James A. Fenwick purchased a 490-acre tract once used for iron production. He cultivated the land and by the 1860's his efforts proved to be successful.

The cranberry boom was on. Land once thought worthless was suddenly producing cranberries for the American and European markets.

It was Whitesbog founder J.J. White who revolutionized the New Jersey cranberry industry. Starting with 100-acres, White continued to acquire additional acreage and incorporated the "Rake Pond Cranberry Company."

Soon after, White married Mary Fenwick, the daughter of Colonel Fenwick. The newlyweds wrote a book on cranberry cultivation which became a standard guide for the industry.

When the Colonel died, he left his estate to his wife and appointed White as manager. During the next 30 years, White expanded his bogs and became the first grower to actually dig bogs and cultivate cranberries where they didn’t grow naturally.

By 1912, White oversaw the largest cranberry operation in the state.

Enter blueberries

It was Mary and J.J. White’s oldest daughter Elizabeth who developed the first marketable blueberry at Whitesbog. Developing an interest in cultivating the land between the cranberry bogs where wild blueberries were growing, Elizabeth read a book by Dr. Frederick Vernon Coville on successful blueberry cultivation. She then convinced her father, and Coville, to carry out experiments on a large scale in Whitesbog.

Because blueberries ripen earlier than cranberries, they could be harvested in July followed by the cranberry harvest in September. Although growing blueberries had been tried by other New Jersey farmers, they’d had little success.

In 1916, only five years after Elizabeth White's alliance with Coville, they managed to cultivate and produce blueberries to sell. Elizabeth coordinated and managed the labor intensive process of gathering the berries while Coville applied his scientific knowledge and techniques to propagate and hybridize the fruit.

At its peak, Whitesbog had 90-acres of blueberries under cultivation. Elizabeth helped organize the New Jersey Blueberry Cooperative Association. She was also the first woman member of the American Cranberry Association and the first woman to receive a New Jersey Department of Agriculture citation.

Elizabeth lived in Whitesbog Village until her death in 1954.

Visiting Whitebog and the Village

The historic Village of Whitesbog served as the main settlement and service center for J.J. White's operation through the 1940s. The company town was home to the laborers who worked in the cranberry bogs and blueberry fields and included housing for 41 workers and their families, a general store, post office, school house and pay office.

In addition to the permanent workers, Italian immigrants were hired from South Philadelphia to work during the harvest season.

Cranberry production facilities here included a packing and sorting house, a factory where the barrels used to store the cranberries were made and a barrel storage house. Most of the buildings still stand today.

As advances were made in the technology of cranberry and blueberry harvesting, the need for large numbers of laborers declined.

Today, J.J. White's grandson Tom Darlington owns and operates the company south of Whitesbog and leases some of the bogs at the original site.

In 1967, the State of New Jersey, Department of Environmental Protection, brought many of the farms in the Pinelands under the Green Acres Land Acquisition Act and to create the Pinelands National Reserve including Whitesbog.

Visitors are invited to explore the village, visit the General Store and enjoy the solitude of the Pinelands. Hiking and nature trails, fishing and canoeing are some of the other recreational opportunities at Whitesbog.

If you go:

Whitesbog is located just east of Browns Mills and is well worth a visit, for its history, solitude and natural beauty.

For more information, complete directions and a calendar of events, check the website at www.whitesbog.org  or call 609-893-4646.

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