After WWII, Tom’s folks were determined to build a “real farm,” which, at the time, meant growing a handful of crops in large volumes to sell to wholesale distributors. As it became clear that their 45 acres of produce could not compete with massive commercial operations, they experimented with a farmstand model in 1969, selling corn and tomatoes to locals. It clicked. Tom worked at the farm from childhood through college, but when his parents fell ill a few years later, he cut short a promising career as a biotech researcher at the Salk Institute to return to the farm full-time. He doubled down on their farmstand vision by experimenting with a dazzling variety of produce and modernizing some farm practices. After a little prodding, he tells me that one of his innovations was calculating the “sun hours” that each vegetable needed to ripen
so he can tell—practically to the day—when a crop will be ready. (Chino Farm is never short on sweet corn for the 4 th of July weekend.) Tom is equal parts researcher and tinkerer, and he finds joy in constantly experimenting with new seeds. “The thing that really matters is that we grow for flavor above all else,” he says. I watch two field hands walk rows of heirloom cucumbers and summer squash, picking the vegetables when they are much smaller and more tender than what I’m accustomed to buying off grocery shelves. Tomatoes and strawberries are plucked only when they are practically bursting at the seams with natural sugar. Afterall, the produce harvested here must only withstand the hundred-yard trip from field to farmstand, not a thousand miles under refrigeration. Small wonder the Chinos are so revered by great chefs—they grow the kind of food that’s worth a special journey.
70 SEPTEMBER 2023
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