Who is The Chef’s Garden™, Inc.?

The Chef’s Garden™, Inc. is the leading grower of artisanal products in the United States for the world’s top chefs. We are currently growing more than 600 varieties of vegetables, micro greens and herbs in seven different stages of growth to enhance any plate. We currently grow 87 varieties of heirloom tomatoes, 100 different Micro Greens and Micro Herbs and flowers, and more than 500 experimental crops that provide you with the newest products around!

Our uniqueness lies in much more than quantity and variety – by using sustainable agriculture methods, our products are exceptional in a variety of ways, including flavor, shelf life and nutritional content.

We pride ourselves in offering the highest quality, most flavorful, purest product anywhere! Let us tell you why. The Chef’s Garden™, Inc. is a small family farm in Huron, Ohio , located just 3 miles from the Lake Erie shoreline. God’s gift of fertile, sandy lake bottom soils puts us ahead of the game immediately.

The combination of bountiful, loamy soil with our method of sustainable farming of long ago allows us to be at the forefront of quality. Modern shipping technology allows us to be your local grower, wherever you might be located.

Our farm believes strongly in the “Chef and Farmer Concept ®” – a relationship with our chefs, that gives us a combined energy far superior to one of us alone. That philosophy and our commitment to sustainable agriculture makes us who were are today!

What is the mission of The Chef’s Garden™, Inc.?

To serve like-minded chefs in the best way possible, every single day, by working closely with you to provide the products you expect and deserve. We are here because of you!

The Chef’s Garden™, Inc. practices Sustainable Agriculture (sometimes referred to as Beyond Organic) What does that mean and how does it relate to taste?

Our farming methods allow our products to grow naturally to achieve optimum flavor and nutrient levels. Sustainable agriculture is a broad spectrum approach to natural farming. Our sustainable agriculture system allows us to provide you the optimum in flavor, yet not ruin the land or contaminate the people, environment or ozone. In this type of system, agriculture can survive and thrive long term. Conventional farming is a mining process in which each year, the soils are depleted of vital nutrients much more. However, sustainable agriculture is a building of the soil year after year to make it better.

Organic or certified organic stands for some of the same things, but organic means that a product is grown without the use of chemicals or pesticides that could harm you … period. Sustainable agriculture, or Beyond Organic, is broader conceptually. Organic is the elimination of chemicals and synthetic fertilizers from the process, and while that removes the bad elements, we believe it is not a completion of the agricultural process until the bad is replaced with the good, as in sustainable practices. We use the very green cover plants that grow in fallow land as recipe ingredients in a green compost. These put the proper nutrients back into the soil.

Our beliefs and methodology shows that sustainable agriculture offers the greatest opportunity for maximum flavor, nutrients and shelf life!

What is The Chef’s Garden™, Inc. doing to ensure a safe, quality product?

The Chef’s Garden™, Inc. has implemented a proactive Food Safety program, one that is not simply reactive or preventative! We have been approved by and received superior ratings from top food safety and quality companies, including the Ohio Department of Agriculture, the USDA, Primus, The American Institute of Baking and AVENDRA. We have standards in place to protect our valued customers! We have numerous safety tools – a metal detector; a cool-down facility; hairnets; and lab coats are just a few! To help ensure top-notch food safety standards, we have a full-time safety specialist on the farm, as well as soil consultants and outside food safety consultants.

Does The Chef’s Garden™, Inc. Inc. offer a catalog or price list?

We do not publish a price list. Our focus is on the integrity and quality of the product, not the price. We do publish a monthly listing of products that are currently available on the farm. We also create weekly market lists. At any time, a chef can call for the prices of any of our products.

Does The Chef’s Garden™, Inc. offer tours to chefs?

Yes. We welcome our chefs to visit the farm and take a tasting tour by appointment.

Does The Chef’s Garden™, Inc. offer home delivery?

At this time, The Chef’s Garden™, Inc. only deals with chefs so that we can focus on offering products and service of the highest quality to our customers. We cannot be all things to all people and risk the quality and integrity of our product.

Where are The Chef’s Garden™, Inc. Inc. customers located?

Our customers are located all over the world! Weekly, we deliver to Cleveland , California , England and all the points in between! Our philosophies and growing practices are similar to that of the farmer in the 1800s. A t The Chef’s Garden™, Inc. Inc., it is not about the distance, but the delivery time. Modern shipping technology allows us to be as local as anyone else – even the farmer down the street.

How are The Chef’s Garden™, Inc.’s products delivered?

We ship through Fed Ex, UPS, DHL/Airborne, Emery, Continental , US Air, United; as well as by ground with our own truck to Cleveland & the Akron-Canton area. There are also other agents that will pick the product up from the airports and expedite it to the recipient’s door.

The Chef’s Garden™, Inc. harvests to order. We do not keep an inventory of product! Our hand harvesting of each order results in intensity of flavor and premium shelf life, which will assist you in actually lowering your food cost and levels of waste. Each item is picked fresh and to the chef’s specifications the morning of the order. Our goal is to have our product on your plate within 24 hours.

Why should I be a Chef’s Garden customer?

• Flavor that exceeds your expectations!
• An exceedingly long shelf life!
• A special synergy with each and every chef we work with!
• The most knowledgeable staff in the nation who will always listen to your needs!
• Exceptional flavor!
• More than 600 products, 500 additional products in our experimental program and a patented eight-stage growth chart that allow the most diverse line of products in the world!
• Hand-harvested product picked to order daily and shipped overnight, so that you can have the freshest product available on your guests’ plates within 24 hours!
• Customized produce – we will be your personal farmer, growing anything you ask us to, and always developing new sizes, colors and flavors of product!
• A proactive Food Safety program and superior ratings in Food Quality and Safety by AVENDRA, HACCP, Primus and the American Institute of Baking!
• Unique, hard-to-find product!
• Did we mention the flavor?

How can I become a customer and begin ordering?

To become a customer, a standard credit application must be filled out. Information we require includes: Company name, DBA (if different), contact person, address, phone, fax, accounts payable contact person, federal tax ID, date business established, type of business (Corp, partnership, etc.), names of three chief officers, trade references (with addresses), Bank Reference and signature.  Simply e-mail us at farmer@chefs-garden.com and we can help get you started! You can also fill out our credit application here. 

 What are The Culinary Vegetable Institute and Veggie U and how are they connected to The Chef’s Garden™, Inc.?

The Culinary Vegetable Institute provides a unique environment for recreation, education and inspiration for America’s most forward-thinking chefs. The CVI provides chefs with the bounty of the farm and every culinary resource needed to get creative juices flowing! The CVI offers menu planning at its finest. Come to our R & D Research Kitchen of the Year” to develop your menu items and use our new products while rejuvenating yourself in our rustic, riverside lodge.

We think there is nothing more important than healthful eating for our youth, and Veggie U targets that through its dedication to good nutrition. The Culinary Vegetable Institute’s 501©3 non-profit organization educates children across the nation. Other programs offered are for chefs, food service students and food enthusiasts. You can help support this cause through a membership with the CVI. For more information on either, go to www.culinaryvegetableinstitute.com.