If The Chef’s Garden had a bucket list, our top wish would be for every single one of our chefs to visit and tour the farm. It is a truly immersive sensory experience.  And, though we strive to communicate through pictures and words, a two-dimensional approach leaves out a lot. Think about it. The most beautiful picture of a bucket of popcorn is perfectly fine, but it doesn’t hold a candle to the intoxicating sensory overload that hits you the instant you step inside a movie theater. But you have to go there to get it.

Our chefs don’t receive their farm-fresh vegetables until they are neatly packaged into boxes ─ and they’re meant to impress. Time and again we’ve heard chefs exclaim that opening their Chef’s Garden box is “like Christmas.” But, a wagon ride through our fields, meeting the people who grow our crops, personal tastings in our greenhouses, a bountiful post-tour smorgasbord of our best offerings and the opportunity to create in the Culinary Vegetable Institute kitchen is akin to visiting the North Pole and touring Santa’s workshop, right there where the magic happens.

Hitting on all Cylinders

We are confident that our fresh vegetables, edible flowers, microgreens and herbs always hit all five senses, so it makes sense that the end result of our efforts is something our chefs routinely ask for ─ flavor, flavor, flavor! Our petite mixed carrots, for example, have three deep vibrant colors, a perfect snappy crunch, fresh clean earthy aroma, vivid, feathery tops and the intense flavor of candy-sweet carrot.

How about cukes with blooms? Super cute in the package, but come see these tiny wonders for yourself, climbing skyward on their vines. Hear the little “pop” as you pluck one and feel the nubby texture of the miniature cuke and the tender fragility of its attached sunshine-yellow flower. Breathe in the mild, clean scent of fresh cucumber, and then taste.

Step inside our microgreens house and see where your weekly shipment of cilantro, basil, parsley, burgundy amaranth, pea tendrils, salad sensation and shiso grows.

Enter our flower house and witness a riot of color. Feel the warmth and humidity on your skin. Listen to the soft sounds of mist gently watering. Inhale the aromas of a million edible flowers, then sample their flavors. It’s a warm cozy nursery for our violas, blue borage, citrus marigolds, Egyptian starflowers, Johnny jump ups, mini sorbet princesses and nasturtium leaves.

See, Hear, Touch, Smell, Taste

The list is long, but we celebrate every single time one of our visiting chefs falls in love with an unexpected something they’ve never tried before. First they touch, and then they look at it, closely. They inhale the fragrance and listen to detailed information about it. And lastly, after all of their other senses are awakened, only then do they taste.

Whether it’s red ribbon sorrel, citrus coriander, citrus lace, herbs, garlic roots or baby beets, take the time to come to the farm and experience us for yourself. See, hear, smell, feel and taste The Chef’s Garden difference.

It just makes sense.