Wild Blueberries Are Coming

In the next few weeks, our native wild blueberries will be ripening in the woods around town. Great locations to forage for them are in Jamesburg Park and the long spit of land at Dallenbach's Natural Area that juts into the lake near the boat launch. Yesterday, the bushes were filled with blueberries just starting to ripen. The bushes are usually about 4 - 8 feet tall and can be filled with hundreds of berries.

There are three species of blueberries that are likely to be found in both places. Two are known as 'Highbush" varieties: Black highbush blueberry (Vaccinium atrococcum) and Northern Highbush blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum). The other is Black huckleberry (Gaylussacia baccata). As the common names suggest, the Black Highbush blueberry and Black huckleberry have fruit that is black. The blueberry on the Northern Highbush blueberry is blue-colored like our store bought blueberries. Although our wild blueberries are much smaller than the ones we can buy in the store, when they are ripe, they are delicious.

When out foraging for the blueberries it is a good idea to know how to separate blueberries and huckleberries from the similar Dangleberry (Gaylussacia frondosa). Dangleberry also has blue berries, but they are basically tasteless and filled with seeds. They are very easy to recognize though, because they "dangle" from a long stem. 

New Jersey is a hot bed for blueberries and historically played a seminal role in the agricultural development of our modern cultivated varieties. In 2010, there were 49 million pounds of blueberries produced in New Jersey at a value of $62.5 million. New Jersey ranks fourth in the nation in blueberry production.         

Research conducted in the New Jersey Pine Barrens near Whitesbog in the early 1900's led to our modern blueberry. It was the work of USDA researcher Frederick Vernon Coville and Elizabeth White, an owner of extensive cranberry bogs, that utilized cross-breeding of our wild blueberries to develop the precursor's to the delicious, sweet, huge blueberries we now buy.  

So, thank Coville and White for their work by heading out to our local woods and sampling our incredibly sweet native blueberries. It will be an adventure and a sweet time too.