In 1983, the Jones family of Milan, Ohio, shifted the focus of their family farm to providing the best possible ingredients to a growing population of chefs seeking high-quality and specialty produce, renaming their business The Chef's Garden. The approach has served them well, until the current pandemic. With restaurants temporarily shuttering across the globe, The Chef's Garden's customer base disappeared, and the company made a shift to selling a line of themed produce boxes (Immunity Booster, Anti-Aging Mix, Subscription Box, etc.) for home cooks. Farmer Lee Jones, the longstanding public face of the Jones family and The Chef's Garden, takes us inside the pivot and describes how his team made the switch so quickly.
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THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW:
Andrew is a writer by trade. If you'd like to support him, there's no better way than by purchasing his most recent book, The Dish: The Lives and Labor Behind One Plate of Food (October 2023), about all the key people (in the restaurant, on farms, in delivery trucks, etc.) whose stories and work come together in a single restaurant dish.
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