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Lee Jones is a sixth generation farmer, growing vegetables just off of Lake Erie that are popular among the world’s most discernible chefs.
Photo by Michelle Demuth-Bibb.
"It’s like a relationship with a human being. You can’t take, take, take, take and not give back,” says Lee Jones of farming.
His story is an American tale — a small family farm transitions to enormous acreage only to lose it all and start over. When Jones was 19 years old, he watched every tractor, his mother’s car, and eventually the family home being auctioned off. Then his family began to rebuild, changing their farming philosophy and making the decision to grow for flavor. The result? The Chef’s Garden, a highly specialized parcel of land set a few miles inland from Lake Erie. Testing hundreds of varieties of vegetables, the farm is seeing nutrient levels 300-500% higher than the USDA average. His new book is “