When you stop to visit the farm, you can expect to be greeted with a warm smile, and a classic farm life offer of coffee or tea with a plate of cookies. The Johansen family has long been established in the area and on the farm site, which is one of two currently owned by the family, with another site near Lake Benton having been in the family for many years. Johansen has lived on all three sites at one point and has many memories of moving from place to place over the years, he said.
The homestead where he currently lives is where his life started. That was where my grandfather and the Johansen family lived in that area. His grandfather, John B. Johansen, the son of immigrants from Denmark, and his wife Birgitti, eventually ended up finding and buying some land in the Lake Benton area sometime in the s. In , before Johansen was born, the family farm site he lives on currently was a part of Plowville, a Minnesota Soil Conservation program that featured local farms in the area and provided farming demonstrations.
Highway 75 until when the family moved to another of their farm sites north of town on the same road. In he moved to a neighboring farm that his sister had near Verdi. In he relocated back to the farm south of town and has been there ever since. Eventually, the farm near Verdi was sold.
Over the years the family raised a variety of crops and livestock,such as cattle, sheep, hogs, and chickens. However, like all farmers, the Johansens eventually began to shift with the times to raising emerging crops such as soybeans. After graduating from high school, Johansen attended the University of Minnesota to study Animal Science. When some life changes occurred, he decided to move back home to the farm. In the family incorporated the farm and he became fully involved in the day-to-day business of the farm.
However, growing up, he was involved in the family operation. I nursed them back to health and they were pets that would be on the front steps of this house here. That was some of those first childhood memories.
