Meet the Modern Farmer: Brendan Davison

Brendan Davison supplies organic microgreens to the likes of chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten and Food Network host Katie Lee. But a decade or so ago, Davison specialized in a crop of a different sort. After a stint delivering cannabis to Hollywood hotshots, he began growing the stuff – in soil, not hydroponically – gaining horticultural expertise that informs his current business.

“Though people think of soil as dirty, it’s the essential element that gives plants flavor,” explains the 46-year-old, whose baby foliage – of 32 varieties, including cilantro, sorrel, nasturtiums, and purslane – is also sold at Whole Foods stores in the Northeast and through a Hamptons subscription service launched this past summer. “Everybody’s supposed to be elite out here,” Davison jokes. “But there’s nothing elite about me. I live in a trailer. I’m a surfer.”

He can now add published author to that résumé, with the release of The Microgreens Cook-book: A Good Water Farms Odyssey (Rizzoli). In addition to 60 recipes from chefs such as Floyd Cardoz and Jason Weiner, the book offers how-to advice for growing your own greens. “All you need, really,” says Davison, “is a container, soil, seeds, and love.”