Our Farmers
Chef Jessica has personally worked and built relationships with all of the local farmers that provide her with the produce she uses for her pickles and ferments. She believes in the importance of supporting small family built farms and has an immense amount of respect for all of their hard work.
BishopHill Farm Flower is a small-scale high-production farm focused on sustainably grown cut flowers, edible flowers and specialty crops, i.e. Blackberries, Asparagus. Jerusalem Artichokes, Peppers, Fava Beans and Herbs. Amanda Vanhoozier is owner and farmer with over 30 years of experience with local food enterprises. She is connected throughout North Texas with farmers and chefs through her work with the Coppell Farmers Market, Dallas Farmers Market and Profound Foods. She currently is the Chair of Slow Food Dallas-Fort Worth.
We started our farm in 2005 in Pittsburg, Texas – a town about 100 miles east of Dallas. Truly a small, family-run operation, we still plant every seed, pick every weed, and tend to every plant with our own hands. We raise from seed all the plants we grow, many of which are specialty heirloom or hybrid varieties. Suffice it to say, we are intimately involved in every part of the business: not only growing the food and tending to the land, but harvesting and washing the vegetables, packing the Farm Boxes, making deliveries, maintaining the website, corresponding with our customers, and more.
We began selling our organic produce at a single table at the Dallas Farmers’ Market. Four years later, encouraged by the support and interest from many of our customers, we started a CSA, which has evolved into what we now call our Farm Box program.
Community support and a growing interest in the benefits of eating fresh, locally and sustainably grown foods have given us the opportunity to slowly expand the volume and variety of what we grow. We frequently experiment with different varieties of our established crops to determine what will thrive in our soil and withstand the finicky east Texas weather, while expanding the variety of what we plant each season. Our vegetables are grown for their exceptional flavor, not for how long they keep or how far they ship.
Demases Farms
In 1911, James Antonias Demases left his homeland for a better life in America. He landed at Ellis Island and began a journey that ended him up in the river bottoms of Fort Worth, Texas. In 1919 he began farming with other Greek immigrants. He was married in 1925 and started a family in the Randol Mill area where he farmed on leased land. In 1941, he purchased his own land in Arlington, Texas, 160 of river bottom land on the Trinity River. James grew vegetables for many grocery stores including A&P, Leonard’s, Ben E. Keith, and even tried his hand at growing grapes.
James’ oldest son Johnny took over the farm in 1953 and grew produce for Affiliated, Piggly Wiggly, Safeway, Buddies, Minyard’s, Fort Worth Wholesale, and Harrington Produce. The family also sold at the Dallas Farmers Market. In 1987, the farm in Arlington was sold and Johnny’s family moved to Boyd, TX where they purchased 40 acres to farm. Johnny’s son Robert took over the farm in 1988 and grew greens for Minyard’s and Taylor Farm for the next 25years. Eventually, the farm transitioned into selling direct to customers through farmers markets and their farm stand, as well as to chefs in Dallas and Fort Worth.
Profound Microfarms was founded in 2015 by Jeff and Lee Bednar in Lucas Texas. They grow over 150 varieties of leafy greens, edible flowers, rare culinary herbs and microgreens in 17,000 square feet of controlled environment greenhouse hydroponic systems. In 2018 they started a second company called Profound Foods, a food distribution hub, that was created to connect local farmers and ranchers to chefs. Jeff and Lee’s journey started with the question “where does our food come from?” Leading them down the path of growing their own food and connecting with the local food community, including farmers, chefs and educators.