Sunshine Johnston, owner-operator of Sunboldt Grown Farms, dry-farms 10,000 square feet along the Eel River. Arriving in southern Humboldt at the age of seven, Johnston told mg she was raised by activists and artists in the community where she started farming with her mother. “We grew to save redwood trees and to help indigenous people,” she said.
Johnston still touches the plant every day and said it defines her. “It’s my existence, my identity, who I am, and what I’ve been doing,” she said. “I think it may be because my mom looked at it in a very spiritual way, all those hours listening to Bob Marley as a kid, all the activism.”
Johnston lives with her husband, Eric, in Redcrest, where she is an avid farmer laser-focused on building a successful brand and a perennially active member of a community with which she closely identifies. Read our full profile on Sunshine, a true force of nature, written by Tom Hymes. And enjoy these inspirational photos, courtesy of Phil Emerson, below.
