Swiss chard was this sandy-blond 35-year-old's gateway vegetable, leading from the world of hobby gardening into something more serious. Two years ago, Chris French leased a one-acre tract of land in Homestead and began sprouting everything from tomatoes to greens. Almost instantly, Miami's sophisticated chefs began buying up everything he could grow. His field was at one time almost completely dedicated to Alex Chang's Vagabond. Today French's gorgeous handiwork can be found at Pinch Kitchen, Mandolin Aegean Bistro, Matthew Kenney's Plant Food + Wine, and Matthew Sherman of Jugofresh's Paradigm Kitchen. French's work has also inspired some chefs to push their own boundaries. When his tomato crop contracted a disease earlier this year, Melissa Sosa from Zak the Baker Deli took hundreds of pounds of green tomatoes that would've otherwise been ground into the dirt. The result was some of the city's best pickles. French is just what Miami needs: a young farmer eager to do the back-breaking work to make the city a better place to eat.