Whitesbog Blueberry Festival

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Piney
Mar 24, 2004
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Coastal NJ
WHITESBOG BLUEBERRY FESTIVAL
New this year: Expanded parking and a new traffic pattern
SATURDAY, JUNE 28, 2014
10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. – rain or shine
The Best Country Festival in Southern Jersey
Celebrating the Centennial Anniversary of Elizabeth C. White’s
Pioneering Work to Cultivate the Highbush Blueberry
(June 18, 2014) The 31th ANNUAL WHITESBOG BLUEBERRY FESTIVAL is just around the corner, Saturday, June 28, 2014 from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. at Historic Whitesbog Village. This annual celebration of all things blueberry – the official state fruit of New Jersey – is considered to be one of the finest “old-fashioned” festivals in the tri-state region. The Festival features the pioneering work of Whitesbog’s own Elizabeth C. White and Dr. Fredrick Coville to domesticate the very first highbush blueberry, traditional Pinelands musicians, artists and crafters, fantastic festival food, wagon and walking tours, lectures, Living History actors, demonstrations and dozens of children’s activities will all be featured at the day-long festival. But the real star of the show is, of course, the blueberries!
This year, we are celebrating New Jersey’s 350th Anniversary with a special Women’s History Trail exhibit that features many of New Jersey’s legendary women and the historic sites that celebrate their work. This new exciting venue will include exhibits and interpreters from the Alice Paul Institute, the Roebling Museum, Smithville Mansion, Peachfield, White Hill, Bordentown, West Hill, and others.
Other top attractions at the day-long festival include an “artists’ row” featuring fine art and photo- graphy, fifty of the Pinelands best crafters, thirty non-profit organizations and authors, an expanded Pinelands Antique Engine exhibit, and interactive experiences that festival goers can enjoy all day.
For the children, activities such as the outrageously fun blueberry pie-eating contest, a hunt for the Jersey Devil, face painting, hands-on crafts, traditional games and blueberry picking, will keep the young ones entertained all day. Live country music by Home Cookin’, the Basement Musicians, the Bad Dogz, Clan Suibhne, Warm Hearted Country, Ladies Night Out, and others will provide the perfect atmosphere for the festival, which the Burlington County Times has described as “a reminder that good old country life is alive and well” in the region.
The Pinelands, New Jersey’s blueberry and cranberry industries and our region’s rich cultural history intersect in delicious ways in this corner of the state. History buffs can tour and explore Whitesbog’s Ice House, Suningive, Elizabeth Coleman White’s historic home and office, visit Rutgers’ first Cranberry Research Substation, tour a cottage that depicts what life was like for Whitesbog’s workers in the 1920s and shop in Whitesbog’s authentic General Store. Fresh fruit enthusiasts will delight in picking their own blueberries at the celebration. Whitesbog is home to the world’s oldest test fields for domesticated blueberries, which will be open at the Blueberry Festival to give people an opportunity to experience firsthand a bit of our State’s agricultural history.
The 31th Annual Blueberry Festival is scheduled on Saturday, June 28 from 10AM to 4PM. Parking is $10.00 per car. $5 per person arriving by foot, bike or charter bus. All proceeds benefit the Whitesbog Preservation Trust in their continuing efforts to restore and interpret Historic Whitesbog Village and the surrounding Pinelands. A new streamlined traffic pattern has been designed to eliminate traffic congestion, with expanded parking available in the village and on the Whitesbog airstrip – a 2-minute drive from the festival grounds. Shuttle buses bring visitors from this parking area to the village throughout the day.
 
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Spung-Man

Explorer
Jan 5, 2009
978
666
64
Richland, NJ
loki.stockton.edu
Screen shot 2014-06-27 at 9.26.18 PM.png
Every 4 years, research and extension workers from throughout North America and abroad meet to exchange ideas and research results on current blueberry issues under the auspices of the North American Blueberry Research and Extension Workers Conference. This year’s conference was hosted by Rutgers University and USDA at the Sheraton Atlantic City Convention Center Hotel, New Jersey. Their Pine Barrens field trip was on Thursday, June 26. I met up with the group at Tomasello's Winery.

Tomasello's 2.jpg
Learning how blueberry wine is made in the barrel tasting room.
Tomasello's 3.jpg
Grapes are are an excellent sustainable crop for upland crop production in the Pinelands.
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Although blueberry production began here, its range is expanding to places like China, Chile, and Spain.
Portugal now grows blueberries in Beira Alta, a place like the Pine Barrens where
cold climate processes once prevailed during the Pleistocene.
I am very happy to see that New Jersey remains on the cutting edge when it comes to blueberry research and production.​
S-M​
 

Spung-Man

Explorer
Jan 5, 2009
978
666
64
Richland, NJ
loki.stockton.edu
Let's compare grape production with bell pepper production. NJ ranks 4th in nationwide pepper production.
  • Grapes require about 20–40 pounds of nitrogen per acre, about 10% of that required by bell pepper (200–250 pounds of nitrogen per acre).
  • Grapes require about 14,000 gallons of water per acre, about 2% of the 800,000 gallons of water per acre required for bell pepper. About 90% of irrigation water fails to return to the aquifer, mostly due to evapotranspiration.
  • Grapes require about 0.5 pound of pesticide per acre, about 8% of the 6.5 pounds of pesticide per acre needed for bell pepper.
Farming is a traditional Pinelands occupation. Vineyards are environmentally friendly when compared to other truck crops.

S-M
 

johnnyb

Explorer
Feb 22, 2013
474
200
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`On the way home from NJMP this evening there were notices in Hammonton that route 54 thru town from US 30 to the RR tracks downtown will be closed Sunday, 29 Jun 2014, for the Hammonton Blueberry Festival. That was the first I'd heard of it...
 

janwor

New Member
Apr 17, 2005
19
4
The closing of Route 54 is due to the Challenge triathlon. The link below explains the bicycle portion which will impact Hammonton and neighboring areas during the day. More than 1200 bicyclists from all over the world are expected to take part in the Challenge.
http://www.aclink.org/challengeAC/pdfs/ChallengeMAPS-BikesREv.pdf

The Hammonton Blueberry Festival is held at the high school on the White Horse Pike at Old Forks Road.
Getting to the Blueberry Festival should not be a problem with some creative driving.

Janet
 
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