From Michelin stars to riding a tractor: Why this Miami chef started a farm in Redland

You might think that a Michelin-starred chef like Jeremy Ford has a lot on his mind. Like retaining the star at his famous Miami Beach restaurant Stubborn Seed or the most efficient way to navigate the drive north to The Butcher’s Club, his steakhouse at PGA National Resort in Palm Beach Gardens.

There are other restaurants on his agenda, too. He’s got a new Stubborn Seed opening at Resorts World Las Vegas and the new Salt + Ash restaurant opening at Hawks Cay in the Florida Keys early in 2025.

So yes, he does have a lot on his mind. But here’s what is in his head these days: The sharp bite of ruby-red radishes. The sweetness hidden in tiny, perfect carrots and their nutritious green tops, which can be spun into pesto. Small golden tomatoes that grow swiftly enough to foil worms (some of them, anyway). The resounding crunch of chard and the surprising spice of arugula.

And there’s more: Nurturing seeds into healthy plants. Mulching. Harvesting. And the well-being of the bees. Lots and lots of bees that are incredibly fond of zucchini blossoms and the huge avocado tree, which yields some of the creamiest fruit this side of Miami.

This year marks the first real season for Ford’s Farm, a five-and-a-half acre plot at 24605 S.W. 197th Ave. in Redland that Ford bought last summer and is cultivating as a working organic farm (meaning no pesticides to combat the pests that come to claim the kale and the cabbage and the bok choy). The idea is that the produce and fruit grown there will find its way to the tables of Ford’s restaurants, as well as make up the menu at the farm’s new event space, which recently hosted its first dinner.

“We spent the last year busting our butts,” says Ford, 39, who achieved fame by winning the 13th season of Bravo’s “Top Chef” while working at Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s Matador Room. “It’s the hardest work of my life. But it’s very rewarding.”

Ford’s new project is located about two miles from Chef Niven Patel’s two-acre farm, where Patel has been growing produce for his own restaurants for years. Ford’s Farm is mostly a four-person operation: the energetic Ford; his longtime friend and business partner Joe Mizzoni, 42, whom he has known since they were teenagers; chef Austin Anderson, 26; and farmer Griselda Maris, 28.

The plan began with Ford thinking he’d build a small test kitchen behind his house and maybe plant a small garden.

“Somehow, that morphed into two acres, then four and ended up at five and a half,” Ford says, laughing. “Whenever I want to do something, my brain won’t let me do it in a simple way.”

There was a lot of cleanup to do on the property and a huge learning curve to master. Neither Ford nor Mizzoni had been on this end of the process before. They learned that growing in south Miami-Dade limestone is a challenge, that stringing up trellises is harder than it looks, that they will probably never grow asparagus in Redland. They also understand just how difficult and expensive organic farming can be.

They even spent six weeks chopping down bamboo in the middle of summer so they could plant fruit trees and begrudgingly accepted the fact they’d lose a certain percentage of the crops to rabbits and iguanas, who like a fresh salad as much as the farmers.

What they lacked in knowledge they learned through trial and error — “the first year I tried to grow a tomato I really got my ass kicked,” Ford admits ruefully — and their high level of enthusiasm carried them through.

And there are many things to be enthusiastic about, like the way cabbage grows so beautifully or the ripening fullness of tomatillos destined to become salsa.

The bees pollinating everything in sight make them positively giddy.

Nancy Tedford of Honey Heist Apiary, who is working to become a semi-commercial beekeeper, has partnered with the farm and at the moment has two colonies of bees there. By the end of 2025, she plans to increase that number of colonies to 20 and produce honey to sell.

“For me, it’s an excellent opportunity to grow my apiary,” she says. “For the farm, it’s great for pollination. Our communities are becoming more and more urban, and there’s not much food for bees. This gives the bees more food, and they don’t have to go as far to look for it. This is an ideal situation for me to be a part of, farm to table with such incredible chefs.”

But while watching the bees buzz around the farm brings big grins to the new farmers’ faces, tears crop up more than you’d expect. Farming is not only hard work — it’s an emotional roller coaster.

Two days before the farm’s first dinner event, Mizzoni found himself crying in frustration over a delivery truck dropping off mulch — and running over part of the soil being prepared for planting next year.“You wake up with this attitude where you’re like, ‘OK, we’re gonna crush today,’ ‘’ he says. “I was in the middle of breakfast with my 2-year-old, and our mulch was getting dropped off, so I run out with my pajamas and rubber boots on, and I come out here and there’s this big mishap. It was like getting struck in the heart.”

Mizzoni’s not the only one who has found himself a little weepy at work.

“I find myself in the middle of the field crying sometimes,” Ford admits. “There’s so much pressure and work. You want to do everything in one day. But when the tears dry, you look back and see what you’ve done in a year, and it’s such a rewarding feeling.”

Ford estimates that he’s there almost every day in the morning, unless he’s traveling. He and Mizzoni both still put in time at the restaurants, which makes for long days and nights and far too little sleep. But paying that price has been worth it, they say.

“Joe and I have been cooking in kitchens since we’re 15 years old, and it’s very daunting,” Ford says. “It’s been hard for 27 years of just push, push, cooking your ass off, getting screamed at by all these crazy chefs along the way. But I think this is a really good break for us. Like this is a moment in time that we are both really cherishing, because it’s not that everyday same thing. This has really broken the monotony.”

The farm has changed them, too, both in the way they cook and in the way they eat. Both men say they are eating more produce, and, like diners across Miami and around the country, paying more attention to what they eat and where it comes from.

“It’s changed my diet quite a bit,” Ford says of the farm. “One of the major things that changed for me is that when we buy spinach from a store, it sat in a truck for a week. You learn a lot of the nutrients are gone by the time you eat it. I didn’t notice how much impact it had on my diet and digestion. I feel better and much healthier than I have before.”

“We’re not such big fans of the way things are mass produced,” adds Mizzoni, who is enjoying introducing his young son to healthier eating. “This is small, but it’s meaningful, and we can touch a few people along the way with our events. And you know, eating healthy food is my way of staying out of the hospital and away from prescription pills.”

The farm has also led to more creativity in his cooking, Ford says. Creating a dish because you have, say, an abundance of tomatoes is different than ordering five pounds of fennel for a specific dish.

“When you have a truck full of ingredients that have to be used, that demands you be more creative,” he says. “We’re being challenged. It’s a cool creative process when you’re forced to think outside your plan.”

The first dinner event for Ford’s Farm, held on a beautifully chilly Nov. 23, showcased many farm-grown items, including pickled radish, honeynut squash, ylang ylang, farm hibiscus, baby carrots and kale serrano chili verde.

The glamorous dining events are expected to continue in 2025, at least until the weather gets too hot. The giant open barn-like structure that the dinners are held in doesn’t have air conditioning yet because when Ford had to choose between paying for A/C and a tractor, he chose the tractor. (Note: everybody on the farm truly loves that tractor.)

That’s the hardest part of all this, Ford says — trusting the decisions you make.

“Sometimes you come up with ideas that can drain your savings but give you so much life,” he muses. “We’re scared of failing. Not to sound like some crazy inspirational dude, but even if I were to fail on this project I wouldn’t leave with nothing. If I go bankrupt, this experience was worth every penny I’ve put into it.”

This story was originally published December 5, 2024 at 4:30 AM.