By Ron Wilson, director of the Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development at Kansas State University.
“Bring your best.” Perhaps you received that advice from a schoolteacher or coach. Today we’ll meet a rural Kansas farmer who has built a business by bringing the best of his family’s products to farmers markets.
Gail and Sue Johnson are owners of Johnson Farms Country Market, which specializes in producing and selling produce, canned items, and baked goods at local farmers markets. Gail grew up on a farm near Bennington. Sue’s family lived at Burdick and Enterprise before she and Gail were married.
Sue became a nurse, and Gail worked as a lab technician at a plant in Salina. In 1999, they bought a farm near Hope. “Our families both had big gardens growing up,” Gail said. They put in a garden at their new place. One day they stopped at the farmers market in Abilene. “We thought that would be fun to do,” Gail said.
They set up a stand to sell their garden vegetables at the weekly farmers market in Abilene, and it went well. Then they added some jams and jellies. When they wanted to make and sell pickles from their cucumbers, they needed a license and an approved kitchen. “Our first commercial kitchen was in 2015,” Gail said.
Sue’s mom and grandma had an old German family recipe for bierocks, and people said they were good enough to sell. The bierocks are now their No. 1 seller. Continue reading “Gail and Sue Johnson, Johnson Farms Country Market”
