Christy Junge and family sell as A Bushel and A Peck Farm at the Johnson County Farmers Market and the Elizabethton Farmers Market. A Bushel and A Peck is a generational family farm located in Butler, farmed by Christy, her husband, her parents, and her daughter. “One of the most hardworking people I know,” Christy says of her daughter. “She sets goals and reaches those goals and it’s the farm that taught her that.”
Christy was on the Johnson County Farmers Market board and understands the challenges of putting together a sustainable and community-based market organization.
Is it harder to grow food, or to grow a market?
“A Market,” says Christy laughing. “Growing vegetables is straight forward.”
“A Farmers Market needs to be vital part of the community and that takes hard work,” says Christy. She’s found that both the Johnson County Farmers Market and the Elizabethton Farmers Market have customers who understand the importance of supporting the hard work behind growing food food.
Christy went through the ARCD’s Field School Beginning Farmers training program when it first launched, which was the same time she was first launching her farm as being something more than a garden. Field School helped her think through the financial and business aspects. “This more than putting seeds in the ground, this is running a business.”
This year A Bushel and A Peck Farm will offer their salad mix, tomatoes, green beans, potatoes, sweet potatoes, onions, corn, and a variety of everything that someone would have on their shopping list.