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Kat Johnson sells dressings and meal kits to stores from Blacksburg to Roanoke.
Kat Johnson sits on the steps of the farmhouse she and her husband built by hand. She looks past her small lean-to greenhouse, to her fenced half-acre of lettuce, tomatoes, basil and zucchini.
The tidy rows are a burst of reds and yellows, greens and purples. A goldfinch flits by. Fat bees buzz through the native blossoms she planted among her vegetables.
Johnson calls her tiny outpost a “farmlette.” She calls her up-and-coming businesses “a salad-centric farm and food company.” She calls herself “Kat the Farmer.”
That she’s able to make a living from her mountaintop sandy soil she calls a dream come true.
“I’ve fallen in love with this land,” she says in her quiet, sincere way. The early autumn light filters through the tall trees that shade her path from field to commercial kitchen. “I love what we’re building here.”
Johnson, 33, was raised in a Northern California suburb, encouraged to roam and dig and explore. A stint at an alternative high school, where she volunteered on a nearby farm, sparked her connection to agriculture — how it asks her to problem-solve, how it asks her to create. She has worked on seven farms across four states since.
In 2013, she landed in Floyd and instantly embraced its back-to-the-land, artsy vibe.
While managing area farms, she sometimes wondered if she’d ever have a farm of her own. But she had no nest egg, no way to afford to buy the land, equipment, supplies she’d need to get started. So she kept acquiring skills (how to care for sheep) and solutions (a no-code app to track the time each farm task takes to determine which crops were the most lucrative).
In 2017, she and her husband bought an over-grown, forested eight acres on the outskirts of Floyd. Johnson fretted that she’d never be able to farm the steep woods. She resigned herself to let that quest go. But, over time, the land surprised her.
As she and her partner built their home together, they watched where the sun shone and how brightly it burned. They cleared vines and scrubby trees and meadows of wildflowers.
A seed of an idea came to her: What if she didn’t need a big outlay of land? What if she could create a product that used the organic vegetables she could grow in her small space — and also those of nearby farmers?
In January 2021, she launched her business, Kat the Farmer LLC, selling salad mixes, salad kits and salad dressings at farmers markets and retail outlets across Floyd, Blacksburg and Roanoke.
She’s found a strong customer base in people who appreciate local organic food but don’t always have the time to grow or cook it themselves. People like Paula Feather, who buys 10 salads a week, one for her and her husband to eat for lunch every working day.
“I love it because, number 1, I don’t have to do the work, and, number 2, her salads are always fresh,” Feather explains. “For me, it’s a huge time saver.”
Johnson is always searching for new ways to reach potential customers. Could she deliver to workplaces in downtown Roanoke? Could she win contracts with area colleges or hospitals?
For now, she’s simply enjoying the work of farming her own land.
“I think that farming is just so many different things,” she reflects. “It’s physical, it’s creative, it’s sequential, it’s edible.” She laughs. “I’ve always liked making things.”
The story above is from our November/December 2021. For more stories, subscribe today or view our FREE digital edition. Thank you for supporting local journalism!
