In the early 1920s, Rudolph Boysen experimented on a small farm in California with crossing a European raspberry with a common blackberry and a loganberry. He produced a large purple berry and then abandoned his project. Several years later, a USDA employee by the name of George Darrow enlisted the help of farmer Walter Knott to track down the source of rumors about the existence of the hybrid. They eventually found a few anemic vines among the weeds of Boysen's farm, and Knotts started to cultivate from them the berry, which he name a "boysenberry," at his roadside stand. The boysenberry turned out be very popular, and the stand evolved into the Knotts Berry Farm empire.
There is probably no truth to the story that when Knotts and Darrow first knocked on Boysen's door inquiring about the fruits of his labor, Boysen started fishing for compliments about his genetic accomplishment, only to have Knotts and Darrow cut him short by saying, "We have come to seize your berry, not to praise it."
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