We’re proud to have earned the Regenified Certification, a seal and product claim from the first third-party regenerative program to be recognized and accepted by USDA Food Safety and Inspection Services for single and multi-ingredient products.

Being at the forefront of innovation in agriculture has always been a strength of ours – whether driven by intention or discovered through serendipity. We’re excited to share our Beginners Guide to Regenerative Agriculture with you. Whether you’re curious about what makes our product naturally better, a farmer looking to learn more or in the restaurant industry seeking to learn about the benefits of sourcing regeneratively-grown vegetables, you’ve come to the right farm to see how it’s done!

What is Regenerative Agriculture and Why Does it Matter?

By now, you may be wondering, what is regenerative agriculture and what makes it so important?

Regenerative agriculture is a system of farming practices that works towards rebuilding the soil for improved ecological and environmental health. Soils for Life puts it in the simple terms of aiming to rehabilitate, enhance and work with ecosystem processes rather than against it for the ultimate soil health.

To some, soil may just be dirt, to others it’s the home for living, breathing things to grow and flourish. When we take care of the soil, it takes care of us. A major principle we live by on the farm is: Healthy soil. Healthy crops. Healthy people. Healthy planet. – this is what makes regenerative agriculture so important.

Degenerative Agriculture: How it Harms the Soil

To truly understand regenerative agriculture, it’s essential to recognize what it’s not: degenerative agriculture. Degenerative agriculture encompasses farming practices that harm the environment and deplete soil of vital nutrients, undermining the long-term health of our ecosystems.

This degradation often occurs in conventional farming systems, which rely heavily on high chemical and energy inputs to maximize crop yields. These methods prioritize the short term and efficiency in farming at the expense of long-term environmental health.

Conventional large-scale farming frequently involves several degenerative practices, including:

• Continuous production of a single crop with no rotation (Monocropping)
• Heavy use of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides
•  Intensive tillage
• Bare fields from absence of cover cropping

The 6 Principles of Soil Regeneration in Action at The Chef’s Garden

Regenerative farming is guided by six core principles that promote the efficient use of natural resources while restoring the land. At The Chef’s Garden, we wholeheartedly practice each of these principles to grow exceptional products for the culinary industry and to leave the Earth better than we found it.

1. Know your context

Understanding your land is the foundation of regenerative agriculture. While these principles can be followed in any order, this one should always come first. A farmer must know their soil type, how it interacts with the local climate and the long-term goals for how the land will be used. This knowledge influences every decision, from what to plant to how to nurture the soil.

2. Minimize soil disturbances

Remembering that soil is more than just dirt and instead a living ecosystem, this continues to put things into perspective. A good, healthy soil that is left undisturbed sets a foundation for a farm and what it grows. When soil is left undisturbed it supports the beneficial microorganisms that live in the soil, and naturally builds and retains essential nutrients.

3. Increase biodiversity

Doing the same thing over and over again gets old fast – just ask your soil! When you plant the same crops year after year, the soil gets fatigued causing diminishing soil health and quality.

That’s why we like to keep things interesting. In regenerative farming, that means practicing crop rotation. One season it might be lettuce, the next it’s carrots, all in the same field. Each crop draws different nutrients from the soil and gives something unique back in return.

Crop rotation not only boosts soil health, but it also disrupts pest and disease cycles making it a win-win. Some pests and diseases love to settle in when things stay the same, but they can’t get comfortable when you switch your crops up.

4. Protect the soil

When land is not being used for a farmer’s main crops, it should never be left bare and vulnerable to environmental conditions. That’s where cover cropping comes in. During the off-season, crops like clover or rye are planted to act as a natural shield for the soil. These cover crops help prevent erosion, enrich the soil with nutrients and increase the soil’s biodiversity, all while preparing the land for future growing seasons. The Chef’s Garden plants a cover crop mix of 14 species to maximize the nutrient input and protect our precious soil.

5. Maintaining living roots in the soil

Living roots in the soil is essential for soil health because they photosynthesize energy from the sun that gets transferred into the root systems, then into the soil. When roots are not present the organic matter still continues to metabolize which then releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, contributing to greenhouse gases. By maintaining living roots all year-round, we can support and strengthen the soil’s structure and vitality.

6. Integrate Livestock

Livestock plays a critical role in regenerative farming. At The Chef’s Garden, we’ve dedicated a 60 acre section to our permaculture operations, with a portion of it being used to integrate pasture raised cattle, poultry and pigs into our regenerative farm. Through grazing patterns, these animals naturally fertilize the land and stimulate plant growth.

Why our Regenerative Products are Better: Nutrients!

Healthy soil is the gift that keeps on giving. Our in-house Research Team has tested our vegetables and found them to be significantly more nutritious than what you’ll find at the grocery store. And here’s the best part… those nutrient-rich veggies don’t just nourish your body, but they also taste sensational! We’ve got flavor and quality like nowhere else!

How You Can Support Regenerative Agriculture and Make an Impact

Every choice we make impacts ourselves and the world around us. If you’re a farmer looking to make a sustainable switch in the way you farm, consider adopting these regenerative practices. Or, if you’re someone who wants to support the Earth, or just enjoy some amazing vegetables, support our small family farm!

The Chef’s Garden is always working in a positive direction, shaping not only the culinary industry, but the environment along with it. Help us make a difference and buy The Chef’s Garden veggies today!

The post A Beginners Guide to Regenerative Agriculture appeared first on The Chef's Garden.

What is Context?

At the core of it all, context is everything that influences and matters in your operation. At The Chef’s Garden, our context looks different than the context of a conventional farming operation. With regenerative agriculture at the forefront of all of our decisions, everything we do is rooted with deeper intention and care.

While context varies for everyone, a few notable key components the Noble Research Institute share that follow us in our every day farming practices are:

• Soil health parameters
• Climate, region and environment
• Our individual backgrounds, educations, experiences and knowledge bases
• Family and employee dynamics
• The history of the property
• Influence of neighbors and others
• Willingness to learn something new
• Our belief system

While these components shape our daily practices, they are themselves shaped by an overarching factor in our operation at The Chef’s Garden: sustainability.

Sustainability as our Foundation to Context

We work hard to provide chefs with the best in-season vegetables and we consider our produce to be at a higher standard than most not just because of what we’re growing, but because of how we’re growing them.

The Chef’s Garden treats sustainability as the foundation, not the finish line. While many think sustainability as being “green” and “eco-friendly”, we see it as something broader and more holistic.

For our farm to be truly sustainable, we believe that it must meet three essential criteria:

1. Environmentally Friendly
2. Socially Responsible
3. Economically Viable

CEO and Co-Owner of The Chef’s Garden, Bob Jones Jr., often compares these three pillars to three legs of a stool. Keep all three strong, and you create a stable foundation that can support long-term success.

We take pride in caring for the land, but we take even greater pride in caring for the people who live on it as a direct impact of our work with the land. When we work with nature rather than against it, the Earth responds in kind—with healthier soil, more nutrient-dense vegetables for our customers and a farming system that supports over 150 dedicated team members.

Sustainability isn’t just part of our context—it is our context. It’s how we grow, how we think and how we ensure that both our farm, our food and our community has a future.

Context Matters in your Kitchen

Those who understand the care and intentionality behind their ingredients create dishes with deeper flavors and meaning. Having the context behind your ingredients allows you to respect and highlight the ingredient, not just cook with it. This context can include anything from the importance of sustainability to your business or home, how or where your vegetables are grown, or seasonality of your produce.

Take, for example, a carrot. To some, it’s just a humble root vegetable, pulled from a bin at the grocery store. But to the cultured cook, it’s a product of living soil, nurtured through regenerative agriculture not just for flavor, but to restore the health of the land itself. These carrots are grown in ways that deepen the richness and sweetness only truly healthy soil can offer. They aren’t grown just to fill shelves or pack boxes—they’re grown to nourish people, steward the earth and preserve the story of where our food comes from.

This context brings purpose into your craft, a connecting conversation with a guest and a flavor that’s remembered well after the meal has been served.

Context Shapes Everything We Do

Context makes every farm and kitchen unique. When bringing context into the picture it forms a lens through which your actions gain meaning. For a farmer, it guides the choice of methods to nurture soil for exceptional vegetables. For a chef, it informs the selection of produce, prioritizing the best for guests and the environment. Regardless of your role, The Chef’s Garden remains committed to working in harmony with nature, providing kitchens everywhere with vegetables that are full of meaning and purpose.

The post Know Your Context: Why Every Farm (and Kitchen) Is Unique appeared first on The Chef's Garden.

The post Farmer Lee Jones shares gardening & nutrition tips appeared first on The Chef's Garden.

As a young man, he saw how humans devastated the ecology when not managed properly. This ranged from agricultural plowing to cattle damage. This observation affected him negatively, and so he wanted to go in a different direction. Becoming a mechanical engineer, he worked in the gas and oil industry for several years, causing him to recognize how our energy management systems are also damaging the land. 

Tying all of this together, he recognized that our land management was highly problematic. As a final piece to this puzzle, he listened to a TED Talk by the Zimbabwean grassland ecosystem pioneer Allan Savory. Allan and his wife, Jody Butterfield, created the Africa Centre for Holistic Management in Zimbabwe—an award-winning center for its work in reversing desertification.

Through all of these life experiences, Eric recognized the importance of properly moving ranch animals for grazing to mimic how Mother Nature once handled the situation. The goal: to give grass enough time to recover before animals grazed upon it once again. Using the methodologies he formulated allows Eric to produce food for people without damaging the ecosystem at his Double P Ranch in Mounds, Oklahoma, where he raises grass-fed beef cattle. 

To further leave the world a better place, he founded Rep Provision to create unique environmental solutions for agricultural problems and those in related industries. If enough farmers and ranchers get on board, Eric believes, we can truly work with nature.

Here’s where you can find the rest of Eric Perner’s story: in episode #18 of our Farming for Health podcast: Regenerative Grazing, Monarchs and Voting with Your Dollar. 

Past Episodes of our Farming for Health Podcast

If you’ve missed any of our previous episodes, you can find them here:

• Episode One: Keto, Cruciferous Vegetables, Salt and Your Mindset
• Episode Two: Cooking, Conviviality, and Preserving the Harvest
• Episode Three: Ferments, Food Insecurity, and Wasted Food
• Episode Four: Anti-Cancer Diet, Food as Medicine, and Vegetables
• Episode Five: Plants, Happiness, and Mindful Neglect.
• Episode Six: Whole 30, Sustainable Habits, and Loving Vegetables
• Episode Seven: Iodine, Egg Yolk Enzymes, and Miso
• Episode Eight: Fungi, Bitter Foods, and Food Extinction
• Episode Nine: Understanding Food, Nutritional Healing and Farming
• Episode Ten: Enjoying the Process, Connection and Soup
• Episode Eleven: Monica Geller, Community and Limiting Salads 
• Episode Twelve: Nourishment, Creativity, and Full-Spectrum Health
• Episode Thirteen: The Joy of Cooking, Fermentation, and Seasonality 
• Episode Fourteen: Cauliflower, Potlucks, and the Joy of Food
• Episode Fifteen: Time Savers, Pickled Raisins and Cooking With Creativity
• Episode Sixteen: Romanticizing Food, Seasonal Eating, and Shamed Spinach
• Episode Seventeen: Being Present, The Eat-In Method and Food as Fuel

The post Farming for Health Podcast #18: Eric Perner appeared first on The Chef's Garden.

Amanda then earned a permaculture design certification in 2013 at the Mesoamerican Institute of Permaculture in Guatemala. In 2015, she earned dual master’s degrees in global environmental policies from American University in Washington, D.C., and in national resource management and sustainable development from the United Nations-mandated Universidad para la Paz in San Jose, Costa Rica. 

Nowadays, she promotes regenerative agricultural businesses in micro sheds in Mexico by applying permaculture (or permanent agriculture) principles, which she defines as a blend of modern science, technology, and resources with traditional knowledge that can get lost over the generations. This could include weaving palms or planting the three sisters (corn, beans, and squash) in ways that use the best of today’s knowledge with the traditions of yesteryear.

The result? A regenerative, resilient, adaptive production system. 

Here’s what else needs to be woven into permaculture: the invisible structures of a region’s social and economic elements. It’s crucial to know, for example, who the players are in a community. The goal is then to empower local communities to solve their own problems through a combination of transferred knowledge and skills with resources and leadership training. 

Amanda is the permaculture manager for Playa Viva Hotel in Mexico. The hotel is surrounded by large amounts of farmland, where principles of the permaculture philosophy are leveraged in all the choices they make. Function stacking is an important principle, as they use elements that serve multiple functions and consider generations of the future with each action they take. They look to close system loops with an eye on longevity. 

Amanda shared some of her insights about Playa Viva at Roots Conference 2023 in a panel discussion titled “A Sustainable Future for Food: Exploring Farm to Table.”

You can also discover how Amanda uses these principles in her own life and more in the last of our thirty-three-long series, Farming for Health: Permaculture, Regenerative Tourism, and Regionality. 

Past Episodes of our Farming for Health Podcast

If you’ve missed any of our previous episodes, you can find them here:

• Episode One: Keto, Cruciferous Vegetables, Salt and Your Mindset
• Episode Two: Cooking, Conviviality, and Preserving the Harvest
• Episode Three: Ferments, Food Insecurity, and Wasted Food
• Episode Four: Anti-Cancer Diet, Food as Medicine, and Vegetables
• Episode Five: Plants, Happiness, and Mindful Neglect.
• Episode Six: Whole 30, Sustainable Habits, and Loving Vegetables
• Episode Seven: Iodine, Egg Yolk Enzymes, and Miso
• Episode Eight: Fungi, Bitter Foods, and Food Extinction
• Episode Nine: Understanding Food, Nutritional Healing and Farming
• Episode Ten: Enjoying the Process, Connection and Soup
• Episode Eleven: Monica Geller, Community and Limiting Salads 
• Episode Twelve: Nourishment, Creativity, and Full-Spectrum Health
• Episode Thirteen: The Joy of Cooking, Fermentation, and Seasonality 
• Episode Fourteen: Cauliflower, Potlucks, and the Joy of Food
• Episode Fifteen: Time Savers, Pickled Raisins and Cooking With Creativity
• Episode Sixteen: Romanticizing Food, Seasonal Eating, and Shamed Spinach
• Episode Seventeen: Being Present, The Eat-In Method and Food as Fuel
• Episode Eighteen: Regenerative Grazing, Monarchs, and Voting with Your Dollar 
• Episode Nineteen: Childhood Injustice, Soil Health, and Relationship with Nature
• Episode Twenty: Yoga, Climate Changes, and Creating a Livable Future
• Episode Twenty-One: Understanding the Soul, Flow State, and Finding Your Purpose
• Episode Twenty-Two: Regenerative Food Systems, Food Sheds, and Resiliency 
• Episode Twenty-Three: Leaning In: Culinary Trends and the Power of Teaching
• Episode Twenty-Four: Mentorship, Self-Care, and Hospitality
• Episode Twenty-Five: Community, Self-Care, and Mindset Tools
• Episode Twenty-Six: Sustainability, Koji Coffee, Being Intentional 
• Episode Twenty-Seven: Finding Your Passion, Picky Eaters, and Cooking for Levi
• Episode Twenty-Eight: Creativity. Brining Vegetables and Family Pasta Night
• Episode Twenty-Nine: Triathlons, Eat to Nourish, and Be Bold With Your Cooking
• Episode Thirty: Ben’s Friends, Community “WE,” and Taking Action
• Episode Thirty-One: Bread, Celebrating Community, and the California Approach
• Episode Thirty-Two: BIÂN, Holistic Health, and Filling Your Tank

The post Farming for Health Podcast #33: Amanda Harris appeared first on The Chef's Garden.

A club in Chicago that focuses on wellness, work, and connectivity, the goal is to provide physical, emotional, medical, and social health in hyper-individualized ways to members—wellness for mind, body, and soul. Kevin says that people have joked that he’s created something that he wanted for himself but couldn’t find—and that’s actually true.

In their center for holistic health, BIÂN Medical is overseen by a medical director and features doctors who specialize in Chinese medicine, naturopathy, Ayurveda medicine, and more. There’s a psychologist as well. As far as BIÂN’s health club aspects, there’s a yoga room, a Pilates room, a gym, an outdoor gym, steam rooms, nap rooms, and more. In the area of BIÂN Beauty, members can have access to luxurious skincare treatments as well as medical-grade aesthetics such as injectables.

Then there’s the restaurant at BIÂN. For a club setting, it’s important to have a broad menu for each of the three meal times, one that aligns with health goals but is still quite “crave-able.” To make that happen, restaurant offerings have been designed with the intention of using quality ingredient sourcing. Kevin notes that eating at this restaurant is one of the components of his own wellness journey. 

To find out more about Kevin’s adventures, listen to “BIÂN, Holistic Health, and Filling Your Tank.”

Past Episodes of our Farming for Health Podcast

If you’ve missed any of our previous episodes, you can find them here:

• Episode One: Keto, Cruciferous Vegetables, Salt and Your Mindset
• Episode Two: Cooking, Conviviality, and Preserving the Harvest
• Episode Three: Ferments, Food Insecurity, and Wasted Food
• Episode Four: Anti-Cancer Diet, Food as Medicine, and Vegetables
• Episode Five: Plants, Happiness, and Mindful Neglect.
• Episode Six: Whole 30, Sustainable Habits, and Loving Vegetables
• Episode Seven: Iodine, Egg Yolk Enzymes, and Miso
• Episode Eight: Fungi, Bitter Foods, and Food Extinction
• Episode Nine: Understanding Food, Nutritional Healing and Farming
• Episode Ten: Enjoying the Process, Connection and Soup
• Episode Eleven: Monica Geller, Community and Limiting Salads 
• Episode Twelve: Nourishment, Creativity, and Full-Spectrum Health
• Episode Thirteen: The Joy of Cooking, Fermentation, and Seasonality 
• Episode Fourteen: Cauliflower, Potlucks, and the Joy of Food
• Episode Fifteen: Time Savers, Pickled Raisins and Cooking With Creativity
• Episode Sixteen: Romanticizing Food, Seasonal Eating, and Shamed Spinach
• Episode Seventeen: Being Present, The Eat-In Method and Food as Fuel
• Episode Eighteen: Regenerative Grazing, Monarchs, and Voting with Your Dollar 
• Episode Nineteen: Childhood Injustice, Soil Health, and Relationship with Nature
• Episode Twenty: Yoga, Climate Changes, and Creating a Livable Future
• Episode Twenty-One: Understanding the Soul, Flow State, and Finding Your Purpose
• Episode Twenty-Two: Regenerative Food Systems, Food Sheds, and Resiliency 
• Episode Twenty-Three: Leaning In: Culinary Trends and the Power of Teaching
• Episode Twenty-Four: Mentorship, Self-Care, and Hospitality
• Episode Twenty-Five: Community, Self-Care, and Mindset Tools
• Episode Twenty-Six: Sustainability, Koji Coffee, Being Intentional 
• Episode Twenty-Seven: Finding Your Passion, Picky Eaters, and Cooking for Levi
• Episode Twenty-Eight: Creativity. Brining Vegetables and Family Pasta Night
• Episode Twenty-Nine: Triathlons, Eat to Nourish, and Be Bold With Your Cooking
• Episode Thirty: Ben’s Friends, Community “WE,” and Taking Action
• Episode Thirty-One: Bread, Celebrating Community, and the California Approach

The post Farming for Health Podcast #32: Kevin Boehm appeared first on The Chef's Garden.

Reem was always baking, and perhaps that was because she was fascinated by her mother’s scientific work. Through alchemy, different ingredients turned into something magical in her mother’s work and in her baking.

Through her passion for social justice, Reem went to Lebanon in 2010, where she worked as an activist and community labor organizer. She wanted to give voice to people in neighborhoods where development was leading to their displacement instead of investment in them. It was hard to mobilize the communities, though, because they didn’t yet have a vision of the jobs and housing they could fight to have.

Reem then spotted a street corner bakery in Lebanon, and she quickly realized how this symbolized the resiliency of the many generations of people in the Arab world as they endured war, drought, and famine. Because bread—a food that all cultures have in some form—was born in the Arab region of the world, this served as a celebration of the journey: for her, personally, and for the people in the community. So, she ended up bringing back this experience for people in the Bay Area of California. 

In 2022, Chef Reem published Arabiyya: Recipes from the Life of an Arab in Diaspora. Named one of the top cookbooks of the year by the San Francisco Chronicle and Food & Wine, Los Angeles Times, Saveur, and Epicurious, the book also won a prestigious 2023 IACP Cookbook Award from the International Association of Culinary Professionals. 

To hear more about Chef Reem’s inspiring story, listen to our Farming for Health podcast titled “Bread, Celebrating Community, and the California Approach.”

Past Episodes of our Farming for Health Podcast

If you’ve missed any of our previous episodes, you can find them here:

• Episode One: Keto, Cruciferous Vegetables, Salt and Your Mindset
• Episode Two: Cooking, Conviviality, and Preserving the Harvest
• Episode Three: Ferments, Food Insecurity, and Wasted Food
• Episode Four: Anti-Cancer Diet, Food as Medicine, and Vegetables
• Episode Five: Plants, Happiness, and Mindful Neglect.
• Episode Six: Whole 30, Sustainable Habits, and Loving Vegetables
• Episode Seven: Iodine, Egg Yolk Enzymes, and Miso
• Episode Eight: Fungi, Bitter Foods, and Food Extinction
• Episode Nine: Understanding Food, Nutritional Healing and Farming
• Episode Ten: Enjoying the Process, Connection and Soup
• Episode Eleven: Monica Geller, Community and Limiting Salads 
• Episode Twelve: Nourishment, Creativity, and Full-Spectrum Health
• Episode Thirteen: The Joy of Cooking, Fermentation, and Seasonality 
• Episode Fourteen: Cauliflower, Potlucks, and the Joy of Food
• Episode Fifteen: Time Savers, Pickled Raisins and Cooking With Creativity
• Episode Sixteen: Romanticizing Food, Seasonal Eating, and Shamed Spinach
• Episode Seventeen: Being Present, The Eat-In Method and Food as Fuel
• Episode Eighteen: Regenerative Grazing, Monarchs, and Voting with Your Dollar 
• Episode Nineteen: Childhood Injustice, Soil Health, and Relationship with Nature
• Episode Twenty: Yoga, Climate Changes, and Creating a Livable Future
• Episode Twenty-One: Understanding the Soul, Flow State, and Finding Your Purpose
• Episode Twenty-Two: Regenerative Food Systems, Food Sheds, and Resiliency 
• Episode Twenty-Three: Leaning In: Culinary Trends and the Power of Teaching
• Episode Twenty-Four: Mentorship, Self-Care, and Hospitality
• Episode Twenty-Five: Community, Self-Care, and Mindset Tools
• Episode Twenty-Six: Sustainability, Koji Coffee, Being Intentional 
• Episode Twenty-Seven: Finding Your Passion, Picky Eaters, and Cooking for Levi
• Episode Twenty-Eight: Creativity. Brining Vegetables and Family Pasta Night
• Episode Twenty-Nine: Triathlons, Eat to Nourish, and Be Bold With Your Cooking
• Episode Thirty: Ben’s Friends, Community “WE,” and Taking Action

The post Farming for Health Podcast #31: Chef Reem Assil appeared first on The Chef's Garden.

Mickey, who is a forty-eight-year veteran of the hospitality industry, bluntly shares his own history, calling himself a “hard-core drug addict and drunk.” He loved to party and play, functioning that way as a Newport Beach, California restaurateur—until he no longer functioned. As his life plunged into chaos, he stole from his employees, his partner, and his next-door neighbor. He subsequently lost his restaurant, ended up in a hospital for mental health issues, and was dead on arrival in an emergency room. 

In 1982, Mickey found the help he needed at Alcoholics Anonymous, and he’s quite grateful for it. The problem? People would tell him that he needed to leave the hospitality industry, but Mickey loved the magic of greeting people, serving them food, and being part of this environment. So, he went into the fine dining niche, struggling—successfully—to stay sober.

During the decades of being in the restaurant environment, Mickey witnessed plenty of people destroying their careers and their families—even dying because of their addictions. So, in 2016, he co-founded Ben’s Friends with fellow restaurateur Steve Palmer to offer hope and support to people struggling with addiction. 
You can hear more of Mickey’s story from when he participated in a Roots panel in 2023 titled “A Balanced Kitchen: Mental Health in the Foodservice Industry” and in our Farming for Health podcast with him titled “Ben’s Friends, Community “WE,” and Taking Action.”

Past Episodes of our Farming for Health Podcast

If you’ve missed any of our previous episodes, you can find them here:

• Episode One: Keto, Cruciferous Vegetables, Salt and Your Mindset
• Episode Two: Cooking, Conviviality, and Preserving the Harvest
• Episode Three: Ferments, Food Insecurity, and Wasted Food
• Episode Four: Anti-Cancer Diet, Food as Medicine, and Vegetables
• Episode Five: Plants, Happiness, and Mindful Neglect.
• Episode Six: Whole 30, Sustainable Habits, and Loving Vegetables
• Episode Seven: Iodine, Egg Yolk Enzymes, and Miso
• Episode Eight: Fungi, Bitter Foods, and Food Extinction
• Episode Nine: Understanding Food, Nutritional Healing and Farming
• Episode Ten: Enjoying the Process, Connection and Soup
• Episode Eleven: Monica Geller, Community and Limiting Salads 
• Episode Twelve: Nourishment, Creativity, and Full-Spectrum Health
• Episode Thirteen: The Joy of Cooking, Fermentation, and Seasonality 
• Episode Fourteen: Cauliflower, Potlucks, and the Joy of Food
• Episode Fifteen: Time Savers, Pickled Raisins and Cooking With Creativity
• Episode Sixteen: Romanticizing Food, Seasonal Eating, and Shamed Spinach
• Episode Seventeen: Being Present, The Eat-In Method and Food as Fuel
• Episode Eighteen: Regenerative Grazing, Monarchs, and Voting with Your Dollar 
• Episode Nineteen: Childhood Injustice, Soil Health, and Relationship with Nature
• Episode Twenty: Yoga, Climate Changes, and Creating a Livable Future
• Episode Twenty-One: Understanding the Soul, Flow State, and Finding Your Purpose
• Episode Twenty-Two: Regenerative Food Systems, Food Sheds, and Resiliency 
• Episode Twenty-Three: Leaning In: Culinary Trends and the Power of Teaching
• Episode Twenty-Four: Mentorship, Self-Care, and Hospitality
• Episode Twenty-Five: Community, Self-Care, and Mindset Tools
• Episode Twenty-Six: Sustainability, Koji Coffee, Being Intentional 
• Episode Twenty-Seven: Finding Your Passion, Picky Eaters, and Cooking for Levi
• Episode Twenty-Eight: Creativity. Brining Vegetables and Family Pasta Night
• Episode Twenty-Nine: Triathlons, Eat to Nourish, and Be Bold With Your Cooking

The post Farming for Health Podcast #30: Mickey Bakst of Ben’s Friends appeared first on The Chef's Garden.

His mom would make a deal with her kids, including Zane: Stay out of trouble, and you won’t have to wash dishes in a restaurant. Zane’s siblings took that route, whereas he found himself in trouble enough that he spent a significant amount of time dishwashing in the 1970s. Fortunately, the chef there kept him out of trouble. 

Throughout high school, Zane cooked. He didn’t enjoy academic pursuits, dealing with dyslexia and other challenges. Education simply wasn’t his thing. He didn’t enjoy the classroom structure, which is true of many people living with dyslexia; it just wasn’t his happy place. 

After his school, a chef got Zane into a culinary apprenticeship program at the Salt Lake Community College, which helped him to transition from being a cook to a chef. He learned about the business side of the restaurant industry and health and nutrition information. 

Next up was the Culinary Industry of America (CIA) in New York. He graduated in 1991 and gained experience as a chef in Manhattan, Hawaii, Palm Springs, and Utah, where he worked in a large brewery. Then, he and his wife moved to the mountain, where he ran a small hotel for six years. Then, for the past twenty-three and a half years, he’s remained on the mountain, working for the Stein Eriksen Lodge Deer Valley. Initially, he served as the executive chef; he’s now the vice president of food and beverage.

To hear the rest of Zane’s amazing journey—and there’s plenty more!—you can listen to our Farming for Health podcast: Triathlons, Eat to Nourish, and Be Bold With Your Cooking.

Past Episodes of our Farming for Health Podcast

If you’ve missed any of our previous episodes, you can find them here:

• Episode One: Keto, Cruciferous Vegetables, Salt and Your Mindset
• Episode Two: Cooking, Conviviality, and Preserving the Harvest
• Episode Three: Ferments, Food Insecurity, and Wasted Food
• Episode Four: Anti-Cancer Diet, Food as Medicine, and Vegetables
• Episode Five: Plants, Happiness, and Mindful Neglect.
• Episode Six: Whole 30, Sustainable Habits, and Loving Vegetables
• Episode Seven: Iodine, Egg Yolk Enzymes, and Miso
• Episode Eight: Fungi, Bitter Foods, and Food Extinction
• Episode Nine: Understanding Food, Nutritional Healing and Farming
• Episode Ten: Enjoying the Process, Connection and Soup
• Episode Eleven: Monica Geller, Community and Limiting Salads 
• Episode Twelve: Nourishment, Creativity, and Full-Spectrum Health
• Episode Thirteen: The Joy of Cooking, Fermentation, and Seasonality 
• Episode Fourteen: Cauliflower, Potlucks, and the Joy of Food
• Episode Fifteen: Time Savers, Pickled Raisins and Cooking With Creativity
• Episode Sixteen: Romanticizing Food, Seasonal Eating, and Shamed Spinach
• Episode Seventeen: Being Present, The Eat-In Method and Food as Fuel
• Episode Eighteen: Regenerative Grazing, Monarchs, and Voting with Your Dollar 
• Episode Nineteen: Childhood Injustice, Soil Health, and Relationship with Nature
• Episode Twenty: Yoga, Climate Changes, and Creating a Livable Future
• Episode Twenty-One: Understanding the Soul, Flow State, and Finding Your Purpose
• Episode Twenty-Two: Regenerative Food Systems, Food Sheds, and Resiliency 
• Episode Twenty-Three: Leaning In: Culinary Trends and the Power of Teaching
• Episode Twenty-Four: Mentorship, Self-Care, and Hospitality
• Episode Twenty-Five: Community, Self-Care, and Mindset Tools
• Episode Twenty-Six: Sustainability, Koji Coffee, Being Intentional 
• Episode Twenty-Seven: Finding Your Passion, Picky Eaters, and Cooking for Levi
• Episode Twenty-Eight: Creativity. Brining Vegetables and Family Pasta Night

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