PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The New Jersey Agriculture Department is giving out free blueberries Wednesday in Atlantic City, Wildwood and Seaside Heights to celebrate National Blueberry Day, despite a spring freeze that has reduced this year’s yield.
Depending on the farm, New Jersey’s blueberry crop this summer is about 40% to 60% of usual after the devastating April freeze. New Jersey Agriculture Secretary Ed Wengryn said he’s seen it firsthand.
“I go out to several blueberry farms and do pick-your-own, because I like to pick my own blueberries,” he said, “and I’ve seen the reduction of the volume on the plants.”
Wengryn said he hadn’t seen such an across-the-board impact on the state’s blueberry industry since the 1990s. The USDA last month approved a disaster declaration, making low-interest emergency loans available to farmers.
However, Wengryn said Jersey blueberries are in markets, and Wednesday’s berry giveaway highlights the need to support local farmers.
“There’s blueberries out there. I know they’re being harvested. I know they’re appearing in our supermarkets,” he said. “They’re just not going to be at the amounts that we’ve seen in the past.”
Blueberries will be available beginning at 11:00 a.m. Wednesday until supplies last at the end of East Schellenger Avenue at the boardwalk near Morey’s Piers in Wildwood, on the boardwalk near Rita’s Water Ice at the end of New York Avenue in Atlantic City, and along the boardwalk in Seaside Heights.
