please try to phone between the hours of 8 am and 7 pm central time zone.
Husband and wife team of Larry Martin Sr.& Jenny Martin moved to Kentucky from Michigan in March 1995.
Larry grew up in the Grand Junction area in Michigan which is the blueberry capitol of the world and where the Michigan Blueberry Growers Association is located.
From a young age Larry worked in the blueberry fields with his duties expanding along with his age and experience. By the time he graduated high school and was ready for college he knew how to handle every aspect of a blueberry farm, from picking, weed control, spraying, trimming, cleaning, you name it he had done it, many times!
Larry went on to college and to become a DNR officer and later a pet store owner in Michigan, during this time he got married and had two sons.
Around 1989 Larry and his wife got divorced, Larry being a very driven person was looking for something new and of course profitable, he tried a couple of business ideas but the lure of blueberries kept calling him so he purchased a blueberry farm that he had worked on as a young boy and that he had a lot of great memories of.
In 1990 I "Jenny aka Jean" had after two years of separation from my husband gotten divorced and happened into Larry's store one day. Well one thing led to another and soon we decided we were meant for each other.
We started working the blueberries together, I purchased a blueberry field not far from the farm Larry had bought and later sold it to buy into Larry's farm. We started our blueberry nursery there and along with the fruit in the fields were "surviving".
In 1995 after having both lost our mothers in 1994 we followed my dream and moved to Kentucky. Let me tell you, it was no small move, we used 5 big U-Haul trucks, some stacked to the ceiling with blueberry plants and others with our belongings. I remember my last trip moving here, it was March 15, 1995, I was driving a large U-Haul with 12 miniature horses, more gates and cattle panels and tack crammed in all together than I can recall and pulling my full size van packed to the roof with half a dozen Borzoi dogs and stuff behind! Six days after we got here we had a foal born, talk about cutting it close!
Larry and I could not believe how happy the blueberry plants were with this climate, they grew like weeds. We started planting and of course had to propagate so we could plant more, according to the Kentucky Department of Agriculture at that time they said we had brought more blueberry bushes with us than were in the state of Kentucky! Well word soon spread and people wanted to see what these "northerners" were doing, and often wanted to purchase a few plants on their visits. I got a job doing nursing care and later working at the toll booth while Larry stayed home and planted, and planted, and planted, all by hand, thousands of blueberry bushes. Well during a layoff I decided to see what I could do for our business with our computer and this thing called the internet. For someone with no experience or education with computers or the internet I didn't do too bad.
With my blueberry growing experience came the desire to know all I could about what I was doing, this led to intensive study on the how too's and why's of blueberries, an education I must confess is never ending, and since we were considered the "experts" on blueberries in Kentucky we started getting asked to speak here and there on blueberries, TV, Radio, Newspapers, Agriculture events. Larry is quite shy so it fell to me, and believe me shy I am not!.
To list all the places I have been invited to speak would be near impossible but to list a few, Kentucky Women In Agriculture, Taste Of Kentucky, Farm To Table Connection, Mammoth Cave Alternative Agriculture Field Day, Warren County Extension Blueberry Production 101, Women's Leadership Conference, Pride Of Kentucky, Kentucky Small and Minority Farm Family Conference,Hart County Agricultural meeting The Farmers Workshop, Pride of Kentucky Showcase, Ag Diversity Conference in Adair county, Ohio River Valley Farm Marketing Conference,2 nd Annual Kentucky Opportunity Marketplace/Agricultural Development Fund Meeting, The Fruit & Vegetable Conference and Trade Show, in Illinois & I have spoke at I would guess 20-30 county UK Extension programs, plus Rotary clubs, Sierra club, did training sessions for UK ag agents, I think you get the idea.
We have been in many newspapersfrom, The Herald News - Edmonton KY , The Glasgow Daily Times - Glasgow KY , The Madison Courier - Madison Indiana, The Metcalfe County Light - Edmonton KY, The Daily News - Bowling Green Kentucky, The Currier Journal, Louisville Kentucky, The Farmers Pride - Kentucky, The Kentucky Agricultural News - KY DEPT AG, Senior Quest - Kentucky, Kentucky Gardner Magazine, Gannett News Service, AP Press, on radio stations from all across the US.
We have in the past and continue to work closely with University of Kentucky and Western Kentucky University, Western Kentucky Corporation and The Kentucky Department of Agriculture.
Larry and I started The Kentucky Blueberry Growers Association in 2002 http://www.kyblueberrygrowers.com and had a slow start but did a survey, membership drive, a few newsletters, a meeting. It has grown from there to include numerous members, puts on a fantastic Blueberry Festival every year http://www.kyblueberryfestival.com
We are members Of Grace Union Baptist Church in Edmonton, Kentucky. We raise Miniature Horses but also have one old Alpaca, one miniature donkey, Sheltie dogs Dave, Andy & Chrome and a sorrowfull Redbone Coonhound named Echo, many many many ( get the idea? )cats, chickens, pet cage birds including my Green cheek Amazon "Max" who has been with me "forever" and a Sun Conure "Sappy". God has blessed Larry and I with quite a nice life. We enjoy fishing, boating, kayaks, metal detecting, bigfoot searching ( this one is Larry's ! ), I collect Breyer models and we just plain enjoy God's Blessings on this earth.
Blueberries thrive extremely well in this moderate climate and we are pleased to be a part of this up and comming industry in Kentucky.
If you would like to get into this rewarding business or just plain are curious let us know. We are happy to help new growers, back yard gardners etc.
We always welcome visitors, but please call ahead and make arrangements as we have no specific set hours.
Phone 270 432 5836.
Here is a nice picture of a few berries.
NOTE how the fruit is on the ends of the branches. This picture taken in one of our greenhouses June 24, 1999.
