When Farmer Lee picks the first tomatoes of the season, he admits that he will “plunk that very first handful into my mouth.” And, as the juice dribbles down his chin, he shares that this experience absolutely screams summer to him. “As I smell the tomato leaves as I walk towards the vines,” he says, “and as I smell the soil and feel the sun on my back, the experience is purely spiritual. It’s about that miracle, the miracle that happens when God gives us a seed and then it turns into such a majestic, glorious gift.” (Farmer Lee Jones, during the summer of 2018)

The Chef’s Garden grows a multitude of fresh lettuce varieties, and nature has uniquely engineered each one to be a little bit different from all of its cousins. Some are long and narrow with fewer leaves, while others are short, full tufts. Then there are rosettes, shaped like flat and broad flowers.