Grayling Farms home to Barn Owl Bakery
The old Grayling Gallery was a lumber barn and sawmill built in the 1960’s by an island old-timer Earl Yost. He turned it into a hardware store and home and eventually sold it in 1976 to a young artist Shirley Wright Johnson. Along with her partner Bernie Sundell and their friend Steve Hill they turned the lumber barn into an art gallery, home, apartments, painting and printmaking studio, casting foundry, ceramics studio, photography darkroom, and art event space. For many years it was a thriving hub of creativity and art on Lopez. After Shirley passed in 1994 the building crept into slow decay until we came along in February of 2019 and breathed new life into it. We’ve turned it into our bakery, our home, heritage grain seed library, farm shop, guest space, and are reviving its creative legacy with an art gallery and meeting room. Please get in touch about exhibiting work, classes, meetings, or other ideas. We want this building to serve our community.
The building sits on 17.5 acres of overgrown field and forests. We are transforming it into a diverse agro-forestry system of managed forests, perennial crops, fruit trees, and intensive annual garden where we will continue to grow and preserve in situ the diversity of rare and heritage grain varieties from around the world.
For more information on the property and our vision check out this series of maps and site plans!
