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Blessed with Blueberries “I WAS IN THE RIGHT PLACE AT THE RIGHT TIME. BUT I THINK ALSO, YOU’VE GOT TO HAVE THAT WORK ETHIC TOO, AND YOU’VE GOT TO HAVE THAT DRIVE AND YOU’VE GOT TO BE DETERMINED AND YOU CAN’T GIVE UP AND YOU CAN’T STOP. IT TAKES A LOT--IT TAKES MORE THAN YOU WANT TO PUT INTO IT SOMETIMES. BUT, IT’S PAID OFF AND WE FEEL VERY BLESSED.” – ROGER STOKES Roger Stokes, son of migrant workers and founder of Stokes Blueberry Farms & Nursery, walks past rows of healthy, potted blueberry bushes, toward one of his sparkling clean warehouses. A massive semi-truck is parked in the driveway, and across the street the big, red Homestead Farm Market waits for summer berry customers. As a child, Roger worked blueberry fields along with his parents; now, he owns and operates a large production and processing center in Grand Junction, Michigan – the “Blueberry Capital of the World”. “Farming is very hard work,” admits Roger, but confesses that even with a fluctuating economy, government regulations and weather challenges, he wouldn’t have it any other way. “I worked in the factory for nine years and I just hated every
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Spring 2020 — Partners
minute of it. I wasn’t cut out for it but it fed my family and we had insurance. I started the nursery before I left the factory in the early 1980s. It was hard to leave that factory job; I was married and had two daughters and it paid the bills. Giving up job security to farm was one of the hardest things I ever did—I struggled with that decision, and I had nightmares about it for years.” Timing was everything for Stokes, and blueberries were growing in popularity as he looked for a way out of the factory. He built a little greenhouse out of scrap material and talked to local farmers about going into their fields to take cuttings to start his own blueberry plants. Roger had trouble breaking into the tight-knit farming community, until he offered the farmers 25% back on the blueberry plants he