Talking Lettuce Farming, Food and Family with Jon Dinsmore

12/11/19 • 39 min

Grounded by the Farm

More information available on GroundedbytheFarm.com

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Find Jonathan Dinsmore on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/thefarmerjon/

Discussed in this podcast:

Jonathan Dinsmore farms with his father in Yuma, Arizona.

Dinsmore Farms produces head lettuce (iceberg lettuce), fresh romaine and romaine hearts, red & green leaf mixed lettuce and alfalfa hay.

Romaine and romaine hearts are frequently grown from the same seed but farmers like Dinsmore plant the fields that will be harvested as romaine hearts more closely together so the plants will remain more columnar.

We talked a good bit about how his family looks at lettuce. Romaine hearts are a favorite of his but he loves a wedge salad with iceberg, his son agrees. But cultural issues early on for one of the kids means a funny story. He also throws romaine hearts on the grill.

Jon has enjoyed getting to know other farmers growing lettuce in Michigan, Florida and Colorado & they stand in touch via social media. He's especially a fan of Instagram where he is @TheFarmerJon. His love of photography has a family history too. Enjoys accounts like RAM628 (https://www.instagram.com/ram628/), Trevor Bales of @BalesHay https://www.instagram.com/baleshay/, and Jay Hill @HillJay45 https://www.instagram.com/hilljay45/.

On the farming side, Jon is looking forward to doing more drip irrigation is a method of putting water right in the root zone.

Food safety — there have been times when lettuce was having concerns. Jon stresses food safety and he sees the farmers in his area all looking at this. The Leafy Greens Marketing Association and the Yuma Safe Produce Council. These groups have been showing the kinds of water testing, employee training, field measures, etc. and now we are going further to sanitize irrigation water for 21 days prior to harvest.

Irrigation water in Yuma comes from the Colorado River. It is valued, conserved and efforts made to limit foreign objects, and now they are sanitizing the water.

Workers in the field have a number of precautions to take, including rubber boot, gloves, sometimes customers ask us to go above the standards too. Standards also require inspection for animal tracks, etc.

They want to be sure vegetables going onto the plates are as safe as possible. That said, we should all always wash your lettuce.

More information available on GroundedbytheFarm.com

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/2381122262203711/

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/groundedbythefarm_/

Twitter https://twitter.com/groundedbythef

Find Jonathan Dinsmore on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/thefarmerjon/

Discussed in this podcast:

Jonathan Dinsmore farms with his father in Yuma, Arizona.

Dinsmore Farms produces head lettuce (iceberg lettuce), fresh romaine and romaine hearts, red & green leaf mixed lettuce and alfalfa hay.

On the farming side, Jon is looking forward to doing more drip irrigation is a method of putting water right in the root zone.

Irrigation water in Yuma comes from the Colorado River. It is valued, conserved and efforts made to limit foreign objects, and now they are sanitizing the water.

They want to be sure vegetables going onto the plates are as safe as possible. That said, we should all always wash your lettuce.

Previous Episode

Introducing Grounded by the Farm (show trailer)

Grounded by the Farm is a new podcast featuring food conversations with farmers.

Each interview will focus on a specific food and we will be talking with a farmer who produces that, learn the ways their crops get to market, ways they enjoy the crop with family and what it takes to grow the crop.

Because food is so visual, the website groundedbythefarm.com will include more than your typical show notes -- sharing photos and videos from the farms profiled and a range of other information about and from farms.

Beginning December 11, 2019, Grounded by the Farm will release new episodes averaging 30-45 minutes in length every other Wednesday but the initial launch will include multiple episodes! Already we have been talking with lettuce, popcorn, pecan, avocado and crawfish farmers. Some will release on the 11th and others will come in the coming months. We have lots more coming too!

The show is a production of Janice Person of JPlovesCOTTON, LLC. You can learn more about her work as a public speaker and communications consultant at janiceperson.com.

Next Episode

How I Got Here & A Convo with Mr. Ray Young (The First Farmer I Interviewed)

This bonus episodes provides a bit of background on the show's host Janice Person, the way she got into agriculture and memories of a first farmer interview decades ago.

As the launch of the show began to near, it became clear that connecting back to Mr Ray Young -- the first farmer I (Janice) ever interviewed -- just seemed to make sense.

Mr Ray and his wife Mrs. Dorothy welcomed me into their home and as he and I laughed and talked, I turned on the microphone to explain a bit of the project and to get his grounding once again.

Thanks to great people like Mr. Ray, I am now Grounded by the Farm.

Learn more about the show at http://groundedbythefarm.com and go along with Mr. Ray and I as we look at his farm, and take a much closer look at soils in this post https://groundedbythefarm.com/mr-ray-young/