The apple had Thomas Jefferson. The peanut had George Washington Carver.

Fortunately for New Jersey, the blueberry had Elizabeth Coleman White.

Before her time, blueberries in New Jersey were seen as little more than a wild fruit with little promise as a cash crop.

By the time Elizabeth White was done, blueberries would become a $40 million business; they would be cultivated and shipped by the millions of pounds from New Jersey farms to places all over the world; Elizabeth White would become known as “The Blueberry Queen;” and the highbush blueberry would become the official state fruit.

White turned the blueberry into gold by gathering many years’ worth of information about the patterns of wild blueberry plant growth, and from that, devised new varieties of blueberries that could be cultivated.

Within a few years, the White farm yielded around 20,000 barrels of the commercially viable blueberries each year. Today, New Jersey accounts for 21 percent of the world’s blueberry production.

White’s innovations didn’t stop with cultivation.

She showed a deft business talent by helping to organize the New Jersey Blueberry Cooperative Association to promote the blueberry, and she was the first to use cellophane to wrap and ship the product.