We’re observing the last day of National Blueberry Month today. After years of lobbying, the North American Blueberry Council persuaded the United States Department of Agriculture to make it official in 2003. In recognition of their achievement, here’s the cover for Jacob Biggle’s 1905 Biggle Berry Book. One of a series of farmers’ manuals covering topics like gardening, beekeeping, livestock, and orchard management from Jacob and Harriet Biggle of Biggle Farm, the Biggle Berry Book introduced readers to the cultivation of strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, currants, gooseberries, and other berry favorites.
Just don’t expect to find blueberries within its pages, as they (sort of) hadn’t been invented yet. After many failed attempts to cultivate wild blueberry plants, the modern blueberry was introduced to American agriculture after 1911. That was the year that Elizabeth Coleman White (1871-1954), defying the widespread belief that blueberries could not be cultivated, invited botanist Dr. Frederick Vernon Coville (1867-1937) to join her at her family’s cranberry farm in Whitesbog, New Jersey to develop a commercially viable blueberry crop. After years of research, the two successfully developed the first cultivated blueberry bush in 1916.