Every Saturday at the Johns Island Farmers Market many people say the same thing: “Please tell me the man with the beautiful tomatoes is here!” The man they are referring to is Shawn Ransford of Holy City Farms. Located on Wadmalaw Island, Shawn’s hydroponically grown heirloom tomato operation has made quite a name for itself since its inception just last year.
Shawn grew up in Columbia, SC and moved to Charleston in 1993 to study computer science at the College of Charleston. He worked at Blackbaud for 13 years and around 2009 he decided to play around with farming.
Through his experimentation Shawn found that growing in a greenhouse would be his best bet in order to closely control every variable in the process. He left Blackbaud and began to focus solely on his farm in 2013.