Owner of Mise En Place Farm
There’s a certain kind of excitement that comes with discovering an ingredient so delightful you can already imagine what it might become. For J.J., Owner and Farmer at Mise En Place Farm in Davidsonville, Maryland, that feeling began long before he planted a crop of his own.
While working as a professional chef, J.J. made a point of buying from local farms. He remembers the anticipation of those deliveries, opening each box to see what had come in.
“Every time we opened the boxes from them, it was like Christmas day; the most beautiful, amazing produce," he says.
Those deliveries offered a glimpse of just how much care and creativity could go into growing good food, something J.J. would eventually bring to his own work in the field.
By 2011, he had stepped away from the restaurant business. J.J wanted a better schedule and more time with his family, but he also knew a desk job wasn't for him. Farming offered the right kind of work, along with a chance to stay connected to the food he had always loved.
Two years later, J.J. and his family moved to Davidsonville in search of a little country life. They had more land than a garden required, and the possibilities began to take shape.
What started as a part-time venture became a full-time farm. Today, J.J. has spent a decade farming professionally, building Mise En Place Farm around the same appreciation for good ingredients that first drew him to local growers as a chef.
The farm supplies eight restaurants and bakeries in the Annapolis area. Tomatoes, peppers, ginger, turmeric, edamame, radishes, herbs and salad greens grow alongside roughly 50 varieties of microgreens. Some of the microgreens are familiar favorites; others, like lime basil and cantaloupe, offer something unexpected. J.J. enjoys experimenting with new crops, and ginger is his current favorite.
The farm’s fruit trees offer even more inspiration, from figs, to persimmons and pomegranates. He even grows pawpaws, a Maryland-native fruit with a creamy texture and tropical flavor.
Beneath that variety is a philosophy rooted in soil health. Mise En Place Farm uses sustainable, regenerative growing practices, produces its own compost and relies on three high tunnels to extend their growing season. Drip irrigation delivers water along the field beds, while the work of building healthy soil remains in focus.
“It's really about managing the health and life of the soil, which then feeds the plants, which makes them more nutritious for people,” J.J. explains.
At the Anne Arundel County Farmer's Market in Annapolis, J.J.’s culinary background shines through. He and his wife are there on Saturdays and Sundays, sharing the farm’s harvest with marketgoers. On Saturdays, J.J. serves up fresh tacos made with local ingredients and sauces crafted from the farm’s own produce - a delicious way to bring his two worlds together.
As the seasons shift and the fields change, J.J. continues to grow, experiment and share the fruits of his labor, proving that even as winter settles in, there’s still plenty of life, flavor and connection to be found at the farmers market.
