Michigan blueberry grower Shelly Hartmann has served on the U.S. Highbush Blueberry Council for the better part of a decade. Now she is taking on a new role as chair.
“It means I can continue to serve and work alongside of some great professionals and the growers to continue to drive the demand of the blueberry industry,” she said. “We’re going to do that through a lot of promotion and health research we’ve been working on over the years. We’re excited to do that.”
Hartmann is also the co-owner of True Blue Farms in Grand Junction. She said things are going well right now, but the season didn’t start that way.
“We had about nine days of really old temperatures, and we had a lot of frost protection,” she said. “We were very successful and saved a lot of the crop, so it looks great. Then we hit a wall too with labor—labor’s been really difficult this year to get people here in Michigan.”
She’s also on the board of the National Blueberry Festival, which will kick off August 12 in South Haven.
“They’re doing a lot of really cool things—farm tours, the 5k race, a pie-eating contest, a parade,” said Hartmann.
To learn more about the events of the National Blueberry Festival, click here.
