Listen 13 min MORE 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
Episode 122 Meet Farmer Lee Jones
Aired: Wednesday, May 5th 2021
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HOSTED BY Todd Schulkin
This week on Inside Julia’s Kitchen, host Todd Schulkin welcomes Farmer Lee Jones of Chef’s Garden and the Culinary Vegetable Institute. They discuss vegetables, plant-based eating, regenerative farming and his new cookbook. Plus, Farmer Lee shares his Julia Moment.
Image courtesy of Michelle Demuth-Bibb.
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The Chef’s Garden Cookbook: How farmer Lee Jones evolved from Ohio hayseed to international microgreen king
Updated Apr 30, 11:04 AM;
Posted Apr 30, 11:04 AM
Farmer Lee Jones holding a copy of The Chef s Garden (Photo courtesy Avery Publishing Group)
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CLEVELAND, Ohio - Three miles north of the Ohio Turnpike, halfway between the towns of Milan and Huron, a little south of Lake Erie, and just west of Mudbrook Road, is a farm that grows the most elegant vegetables in the world. There you’ll find tender pink asparagus, deep purple French beans, exquisite multi-colored microgreens, flawlessly complected petite potatoes in eight distinct sizes and several tasteful shades, and tiny delicately scalloped kinome leaves that pack an almost unbearably intense sour-citrus-menthol flavor that evolves into a tingling numbness and indelible memory. Plus tomatoes in more colors, sizes, and styles than shoes in a Nordstrom stockroom. Over 600 kinds of specialty plants make