As so many farmers do, Bob Jones wears many hats at The Chef’s Garden, but they all serve to enhance the family's regenerative farming practices that have made the farm one of the most innovative and well respected in the world. He is a co-owner and chief executive officer of The Chef’s Garden, which has always been family owned and devoutly committed to its pioneering efforts to grow exceptional vegetables. Bob champions the farm team’s cutting edge food safety and food quality programs, which make the flavorful products grown in the healthy soil at The Chef’s Garden some of the most reliably healthy and nutritionally dense fresh vegetables in the industry.

Bob is grateful to collaboratively work alongside an amazing team of professionals, serving as a mentor in the areas of farm operations, farm food safety, packaging, shipping, employee immigration, and sustainable energy practices. He fosters relationships with the farm’s international team members and remains as committed to them as they are to the farm. Bob has long understood that working in synchronicity and mutual respect is the best possible way to encourage long term, fulfilling relationships—and he focuses on win/win relationships across the spectrum: with chefs, home cooks, vendors, and more. 

Active in various industry organizations at the state and national level for decades, Bob works closely with his brother “Farmer” Lee and the entire farm team at The Chef’s Garden. The family has been involved in agriculture for six generations, focusing on vegetable production for over 40 years with four generations of the Jones family currently working on the farm. About 165 team members work on the farm, as well, with some of the seasonal workers being third generation themselves. So, The Chef’s Garden truly is a family with everyone interconnected and committed to success.

But how is “success” defined?

“We grow vegetables,” Bob has said, “and have done so all our lives. It’s all we know. Our business, though, is really about helping other people: chefs, who want flavorful, eye-catching vegetables with great shelf life; people with health conditions who want to eat a diet that will help them; and families who want to feed their children a healthy diet that includes fresh vegetables.”

Bob is married to Julie, whom he met—not surprisingly—as a teenager working on the family farm. They have three children: Kate, Zach, and Becca—and two of them (you guessed it!) are part of The Chef’s Garden team.