‘I just know my stuff’: 8-year -old Kendall Rae Johnson talks urban farming, community and fresh food

At just eight years old, Atlanta native Kendall Rae Johnson is the youngest certified farmer in the nation. With a title she earned at six, Kendall and her parents, Ursula and Quentin Johnson, have continued cultivating a community that thrives on sharing and teaching through their urban farm aGROWKulture.Every April, Earth Month and Earth Day remind us of the importance of using sustainable practices to protect our environment. I got to chat with Kendall about how every day is essentially Earth Day and how people can practice eco-consciousness beyond April. I also got to tour the farm, teeming with various fresh fruits, vegetables, flowers, and herbs.Laura Nwogu: What do we have here?Kendall Rae Johnson: “Strawberries! It’s strawberry season, so there’s gonna be a lot of strawberries. But most of the time, I probably eat them by the bunch.”LN: (Laughs) How long do strawberries usually take to grow?KJ: “They don’t really take a while. But they do spread fast. You see this row right here? This row has runners in it. Runners come from the main strawberry. It’s like a stem that comes from the main plant, and on the other side of the stem, there’s a tiny strawberry.”LN: Oh! That’s...