Johnston Farms

Johnston Farms was founded shortly after World War II by John C. Johnston who had retired from the Southern Pacific Railroad in Oregon and moved his family to Bakersfield to grow potatoes in the Edison area of Kern County. The first of 3 packinghouses owned by Johnston Farms was built and is still operated as a potato packinghouse by the Johnston family. Citrus was added to the operation with the first navel orange grove planted in 1963, followed by Satsuma Mandarins in the early 1970s and Red Grapefruit in the 1980s. The citrus packinghouse was added in 1983 and it now packs approximately 1,000,000 cartons of citrus from November to May every year. Bell peppers were added to the mix in 1986 and Johnston Farms ships all of these commodities from the three packinghouses in Edison, Calif. Since 1984 citrus direct-to-consumer and gift packs have been sold from the packinghouse and are shipped all over the United States and Canada during the holiday season. These consumer packs range in size from 10 to 40 pounds. and can be ordered by phone, fax, mail order and soon on the Internet. The company was founded in 1955.