Our Journey
It all began when newlyweds Oma Davis and Alfred Johnson of Philomath, Oregon embarked on the adventure of vegetable and livestock production in 1915. The early seasons on Johnson Farms required long days of harvesting, tending fields, milking cows, making sausage and hitching up horses to a wagon for an hour ride into Eugene’s markets. Until 1958, Oma successfully sold produce at downtown public markets and by the following year, her loyal customers were driving out to Johnson Farm to buy the produce.
By 1978, Alfred and Oma’s grandson Walt Johnson purchased their farm, which by then was expanding to include the production of wheat, mint, sugar beet seeds, berries and additional crops grown for the Eugene Fruit Growers Association.
Walt Johnson of Johnson Farms
Today, Johnson Farms is one of the oldest family-owned agricultural farms in Lane County. Our objective is to produce the best flavored produce through continuous variety trials and by harvesting daily to provide the freshness expected from an on-farm purchase. Just outside of Eugene’s urban growth boundary, you will find fresh seasonal produce, our specialty frozen berries and Grandma Oma’s original jams, syrups and blackberry honey at our store.
Johnson Farms also offers the nation’s only “wild wagon ride,” an unforgettable Halloween adventure complete with pumpkin tossing and bungee launching at the farm’s four-acre pumpkin patch. A fall tradition for many families of the Eugene-Springfield area, we invite you to enjoy a ride with “Wild Walt” and your family and friends.
At Johnson Farms, we believe that healthy foods help foster healthy families generation after generation.
Our Philosophy
We believe in the promotion of continued development of healthy regional foods, natural farming techniques and no-spray programs. We use Integrated Pest Management (IPM) farming techniques that emphasize the growth of healthy crops with the least amount of disruption to agro-ecosystems possible. IPM also encourages natural pest and weed control methods without the use of sprays.
Our Methods
- Soil health and vitality is achieved through cover cropping, composting hundreds of loads of leaves, tilling crop residue back into the soil, interplanting crops and double cropping (a sustainable practice in which two crops are grown and harvested at the same time).
- Natural weed control and no spray cropping is achieved through extensive use of reusable weed barrier cloth wherever feasible.
- Early and late season production is accomplished using portable greenhouses.
- Drip irrigation and automatic timers on sprinklers are used for water conservation.