The truth behind the first cultivated blueberry?

[sojerser]

Yesterday, a friend and I spent the day walking from Carranza to Sandy Ridge then onto Friendship and looped around the bogs before stopping to take a look at the Alloway monument about a mile and a half south of Friendship. It reads:

“The cultivated blueberry industry started in the New Jersey Pinelands on this site. James Garfield Alloway established one of the worlds first blueberry farms. Not only was it one of the first but for many years it was one of the most productive.

The hard work of James Garfield Alloway his wife Anna and his sons Mark and Andrew made this piece of pinelands a garden spot. Their pioneering efforts helped establish blueberry cultivation.

This monument is dedicated to their memory by James Garfield Demarco. Now abandoned and returning to forest, The Alloway farm belongs to the state of New Jersey“

Dedicated 3/28/1986

I was always under the impression that Elizabeth White cultivated the first blueberry at Whitesbog. So what’s the real deal?

 

[bobpbx]

It's worded very carefully, right? One could think that maybe Elizabeth was into 'developing' the cultivated varieties, but maybe he was the first to make an industry out of it? And he says "one" of the first, he doesn't say 'the' first.

 

[Teegate]

If you just took that photo they obviously have cleaned it. The wording was getting hard to read.

 

[sojerser]

It's worded very carefully, right? One could think that maybe Elizabeth was into 'developing' the cultivated varieties, but maybe he was the first to make an industry out of it? And he says "one" of the first, he doesn't say 'the' first.

That’s a good point and you’re right- the wording is definitely careful

 

[sojerser]

If you just took that photo they obviously have cleaned it. The wording was getting hard to read.

Yup, took it yesterday