By Seojin Ha

John Russell never planned to be a farmer. A retired elementary school teacher from the Emerson School in Northwest Portland, he first set foot on a blueberry field because of love. He met Joan, a fellow teacher who owned the Bonny Slope Blueberries, and started visiting just to spend time with her. What began as visits turned into shared work, and soon, a shared life.

Joan had bought the farm in 1987, keeping alive the vision of its original founder, Mr. Sykes, who planted the first bushes over fifty-five years ago. When Joan passed away from cancer in 2018, John chose to keep the farm running in her honor. “It was bigger than me,” he says. “I felt like I was the steward of something beautiful.”

Since then, John has expanded the farm beyond blueberries. He has added fruit trees, vegetable gardens, and bright rows of u-pick flowers, extending the season from July to November. Families come year after year to pick berries, swing under the trees, and visit Ripley, John’s famous pug who has become the farm’s unofficial mascot. “Some people who picked here fifty years ago come back with their grandkids,” John says. “That’s something special.”

Running the farm takes relentless effort. John spends long winter months pruning each bush by hand, ensuring they have the strength to bear fruit the next season. During harvest, he manages everything himself, maintaining the honor-system stand, cleaning buckets, tending plants, and welcoming visitors. The work is physically demanding, but for John, it’s deeply meaningful. Each sunrise over the rows and each family returning to pick berries reminds him why he keeps going.

His philosophy on farming runs deep: food is connection. He often says a simple grace before meals, “May all be fed.” To John, that blessing sums up everything. “It all begins with farmers,” he says. “Well-fed people are happy people.”

At sixty-seven, John isn’t planning to grow the farm much larger, only to keep nurturing what he and Joan built. Someday, he hopes to pass the land to another farmer who will protect its legacy. Until then, he’ll be out among the rows, tending the fields that began with love and continue with gratitude. Bonny Slope Blueberries is located at 3565 NW South Road. They’ll be open again next summer.