Episode Details

(Quick note for our livestreams: You can now watch all our videos on your actual TV now (like YouTube) via the new Substack TV app - you just have to add it to the apps on your TV via Google apps or Apple tv apps. I’ve had success on one of our 2 tvs. Once in the app, just search up The Food Is Health Revolution and voila. It’s a great alternate if you prefer the full video experience over reading and you can handle us on the big screen - I might need to start focusing more on hair and makeup... Just kidding, no time for that.)

If you watched our livestream last week, you already know it was a bit of a wild ride. First and foremost, I would like to thank my husband Brian for his contribution to this week’s recording as he made his first Food Is Health cameo which was also his first “unboxing video” of our first Chef’s Garden produce box. On this episode, what started as a backup plan when Carter got stuck in travel chaos turned into a guest appearance one of my favorite farmers - Bob Jones Jr. of Chef’s Garden.

Bob joined us with about 90 minutes notice. And what he shared, about regenerative farming, nutrient density, and the real economics of our broken food system, gave me the opportunity to share in my typical N of 1 style, how in our house, we treat food expenses as part of our healthcare budget. We also recognize we are extraordinarily grateful we have the financial means to make that choice.

Then we pivoted to the congressional hearing where five health insurance CEOs got grilled about why premiums are so high. As someone that has spent 34 years in healthcare, it was an absolute embarrasment, yet in no way suprising. In some ways it was deeply satisfying.

Let’s dig in. (Pun intended of course). And a Cliffs notes version at the bottom.

“She Doesn’t Care What They Cost”

Bob Jones is part of a family vegetable growing operation in Northern Ohio. His parents started in the 60s. At their peak, they were farming over a thousad acres of wholesale vegetables, shipping anywhere east of the Rockies.

Then came the farm crisis of the 1980s.

Here’s how Bob explained it:

“My Dad’s last operating note was 24% interest. Borrowed money at 24%, we loaned it out at zero, and we wondered why it didn’t work. It was economics 101.”

They were working with a large grocery chain on 120-day payment terms. Borrowing money to grow food, giving it away on credit, and hoping it all worked out. Their bank encouraged them to “find a different advocate.”

Here’s where the story gets interesting.

While selling at a farmers market in Cleveland, they kept encountering this European-trained chef who wanted baby zucchini with the blossoms still attached. Bob’s dad kept saying no - they were harvesting at eight inches, packing 24 in a basket for $3, and thought they were doing great.

The chef kept coming back. Week after week. And as Bob tells it, if you knew his dad, when he said no, that was the end of it. You didn’t bring it up again.

But Bob’s brother finally said: “Dad, she really wants these baby zucchini with the flowers. And she said she doesn’t care what they cost.”

Bob’s dad’s response? “How many does she want?”

That was the beginning of The Chef’s Garden as it exists today.

Latent Demand Is Real (We Just Keep Missing It)

Carter and I talk a lot about latent demand. Spoiler alert, Carter Williams is in full engineer mode this week solving for how to show it as a collective (more to come). People do want to eat better, they just don’t have access to what “better” actually looks like.

Bob’s story is proof.

They took those baby zucchini to market hidden under a paper towel, tucked under the table, because they didn’t want other farmers making fun of them for bringing