News

Kirby Johnson conserves land while farming it

Seventh-generation farmer Kirby Johnson raises vegetables on around 1,400 acres in Mills River and Florida. [PHOTO BY MARK LEET]

By Bill Moss, Published: April 10, 2024

Kirby Johnson is a seventh generation vegetable grower and packer in Mills River. His ancestors, Irish victims of the potato famine, settled in the Shaw’s Creek community.

“I was born a farmer, and trained on the job by my father, Pete Johnson,” Kirby said as we sat among the expertly restored tractors at his private museum at old Valley Hill School off Willow Road. Kirby, his brothers Pete and Scott and partner Mitch Gaither grow around 500 acres of vegetables in Mills River and around 900 acres in Florida. These are packed and shipped from Flavor 1^st packing house on Banner Farm Road in Mills River. Twenty to thirty tractor-trailer loads leave the packing house daily for destinations up and down the East Coast. With easy access to Interstates 26, 40, 77 and 81, Mills River is ideally located for transportation efficiency.

For several years, Flavor 1^st has sold directly to about 10 major grocery chains, bypassing middle-man brokers. Food safety concerns require tracking codes for tracing every box of produce to its field of origin.

Kirby has worked with the same labor contractor for 35 years. At the peak of harvest in August, around 200 field workers are required.

Several fields have wide grass buffers to mitigate storm water runoff. These buffers cover about 25 percent of the land surface and represent a major investment by the grower in protecting water quality.

Kirby practices crop rotation and plants cover crops to reduce soil borne diseases. Rye is planted between the plastic row covers to reduce storm water runoff during the early weeks of the growing season. He is experimenting with a fall cover crop of mustard that is reported to work as a natural soil fumigant.

Concerned about the rapid loss of farmlands to development, Kirby is involved with farmland preservation committees in Henderson County. He believes that major state and federal funds will be required to purchase easements on large tracts of farmlands.

In addition to his commercial farming, Kirby collects and plants heirloom vegetable varieties for his daughters to sell at their roadside market. For several years he has provided four bushels of flavorful greasy cut-short beans to Mrs. Bob Ingle.

Kirby shares my belief that Mills River waters are public domain. “I fished the river with my granddad and grandson,” says Kirby.  “Others should enjoy the same privilege.”  

Journeying on …

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West of the French Broad columnist writes about life and culture in Mills River and beyond. This column is another installment in Jere’s ongoing series on sustainable agriculture.