Before 1916, the only blueberries available to eat were those foraged from lowbush wild blueberries. Thanks to a lucky partnership between Elizabeth White, a New Jersey cranberry farmer, and Dr. Frederick Coville, a USDA botanist studying blueberry growth requirements, the modern blueberry was born.
White provided the highly acidic agricultural land that blueberries preferred, as well as local knowledge and connections to the best wild blueberry specimens. Dr. Coville provided the botanical research acumen. After five years of cross-breeding wild blueberry specimens, White and Coville cultivated and sold the first containers of domesticated blueberries at market.
While Elizabeth is toted as being the "Blueberry Queen," and Dr. Coville as "the father of the blueberry," some might know Dr. Coville by another title — the first director of the U.S. National Arboretum.
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