(This article first appeared in the August print edition of the Hendersonian.)
People with worries about the loss of the family farm and the lack of interest in young people for working the land should meet Josh and Brittany Johnston.
The owners of Windy Hill Farm + Home are full-time farmers, transitioning in 2021, after the birth of their daughter Maggie, from the agribusiness company they both worked for to growing, making and selling many things.
Neither was a stranger to the ag lifestyle, but the step they took toward embracing the dirt solidified it.
One of their market outlets is Henderson Farmers Market, where they sell all sorts of vegetables, jams and jellies, baked goods and other handmade goods.
At their market space you might see all shapes and sizes of tomatoes, peppers, broccoli, cauliflower, candy onions, watermelons and cantaloupes.
In their 8-acre vegetable garden, they love to try varieties that come in unusual colors, such as orange and purple cauliflower, purple and blue potatoes (in addition to the more common red and white varieties) and three colors of carrots.
For them, the vegetable garden is much, more more than a “cute hobby.”
“We have a little bit of everything,” Josh said, adding that some of their cold season crops last season were still producing in late December/early January.
“We stay busy,” he added, explaining their practice for renourishing the land by not over-tilling and adding beneficial plants. “We always keep something green and growing. As soon as we harvest we’re doing something else.”
They also have a half-acre of wildflowers to keep the pollinators coming around.
In season, one of their top sellers is the Turner Cherry Tomato that “grew wild” on Brittany’s family’s Ohio County farm.
“It’s truly a heirloom tomato,” Josh said, “and is a symbol of what we’ve lost with community agriculture.”
They’re both very passionate about the importance of playing a role in providing fresh food.
“We’ve lost quality ‘people food’ in the middle part of the country,” Josh said, noting that some of the most fertile land in the world is used to grow grain for export. “It is so important that we have (that).”
One of the challenges, they said, is educating the market customers about the value of having access to fresh vegetables that aren’t already several days old by the time they’re on the store shelf.
And sometimes the lesson is even more basic.
Brittany recalls a young adult Farmers Market customer picking up a potato and asking what it was.
Assured that it was a potato, the young woman replied “I’ve only seen them at Walmart and they don’t look like this.”
Often, customers have no idea how to prepare something they’re selling or how a vegetable is grown.
The good news is that they have noticed that when people try “eating local” they like the experience and are more willing to pay for it.
“People want more when it’s good,” Josh said.
A benefit of their family farm lifestyle is that their 3-year-old is with them all the time. She picks tomatoes, digs in the dirt, goes along on deliveries.
“Everybody in the bank knows Maggie,” Josh said.
Brittany produces around 15 flavors of jams and jellies with top flavors being razzleberry, pumpkin pie jam, apple pie jam and blackberry.
“Anything we can’t sell Brittany figures out how to make a jam out of it,” Josh said.
In addition to baking for the market she takes custom orders and spends other time crocheting handmade items for sale.
His advice to consumers is that they should get to know a farmer and learn where food comes from.
“Identify somewhere local that has the highest quality food you can put on your table,” he said.
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The Henderson Farmers Market is open for the season from the first of May until the last of October on Tuesdays, Friday and Saturdays. Growers and producers set up from 8 a.m. to noon (as long as supplies last). The market location is the Cates-Porter Farmers Market Pavilion at Henderson County Fairgrounds located on Sam Ball Way at Airline Road. Follow the Henderson Farmers Market Facebook page for updates about what’s available at the market and news about special activities that take place on select Saturdays during market season.
