Salt & Spine

This week, we're excited to welcome Farmer Lee Jones to Salt + Spine, the podcast on stories behind cookbooks.Lee grew up in Ohio, where his family has farmed for about six generations. Fresh into college at just 19 years old, Lee saw everything his family owned gone in a day—their farm, their house, their car—after a hail storm devastated their crops, and interest rates were sky-high. At that moment, the family pivoted to smaller-scale farming, catering to farmers’ markets.And it was at a farmers market in Cleveland, Ohio, that a chef approached them. asking where she could buy the type of vegetables she was used to cooking with in Europe, meaning organic, heirloom, chemical-free produce. Lee was in his early 20s, and the family took a vote—and decided to transition to growing only quality ingredients for chefs to use in their restaurants. And that paved the path forward.Today, Lee’s family farm has become The Chef’s Garden, which focuses on regenerative farming and suppli