“Father…taught me to stand with my back to the sun,
and look I my own shadow to get the best light
in which to see and admire the developing buds and berries.”
— Elizabeth Coleman White
How much do you love blueberries? Here is the story of a young girl with a big dream – Elizabeth Coleman White, known as “Miss Lizzie,” the woman who tamed the wild blueberry.
Elizabeth was the first to package and sell blueberry cartons topped with see-through cellophane. Her pioneering spirit earned her many awards and firsts as a woman in the early 1900’s, but the title she prized the most was that of Blueberry Queen.
Her southern New Jersey farm, Whitesbog, is considered the birthplace of the modern blueberry.
Paula Newcomer teaches a children’s workshop, “Muncha Buncha Blueberries,” every year in June at the annual Whitesbog Blueberry Festival in Browns Mills, New Jersey. Here, the cranberry and blueberry operations of the White farm and “Miss Lizzie’s” house are preserved for visitors to tour. Children and adults learn about the years Ms. White spent cultivating the wild huckleberry and creating the modern blueberry.
“THE BLUEBERY GIRL,” Paula’s new picture book biography, is available at the General Store year-round and at the annual Whitesbog Blueberry Festival in June every year.