Meet Healdsburg's culinary gardener-turned-Instagram celebrity

Tucker Taylor has a secret garden of sorts - 30 bonsai trees at his Healdsburg house.

The culinary gardener for Jackson Family Wines makes a powerful first impression. Taylor is a lanky 6-foot-1, and his beard, streaked in gray, protrudes beneath his straw hat. He’s wearing dusty leather boots, jeans and a flannel shirt. But the most telling part of his getup is the red Felco pruners attached to his black leather belt.

Taylor said he can shape a bonsai tree with his pruners, much like a potter with clay.

“The first time I saw bonsai trees more than 500 years old was at a Seattle exhibit,” Taylor said. “It brought tears to my eyes thinking about how many people have been involved with these trees.”

The bonsai trees, with a penchant for longevity, symbolize Taylor’s gardening philosophy: When you’re a trustworthy steward of the land, it will be generous for generations.

Taylor, 43, got his start in Wine Country in 2007, developing the culinary garden with chef/owner Thomas Keller of the famed French Laundry restaurant in Yountville.

The grower was hired in 2013 to rejuvenate the sensory and culinary gardens of the Kendall-?Jackson Wine Estate and Gardens in Santa Rosa.

Taylor was tapped to develop additional gardens at other winery properties within Jackson Family Wines, as well.

As Taylor moves through his day, he takes photographs when he sees something inspiring and posts them on Instagram (find him @farmert). The social network is an online feed of photo and video sharing, and it has made Taylor something of a celebrity in some culinary circles.

He began posting his photographs in 2012 and now has more than 41,000 followers.

Forbes’ website recently touted Taylor as someone to follow. The article said: “The Instagram feed is a visual testimony to the farm-to-table movement showing off the bountiful harvests he has cultivated.”

A tour of the Santa Rosa property reveals visual, as well as tasty, treats. The oyster leaf, for one, is a plant that actually tastes like oysters. Chefs love to use the oyster leaf in bite-sized creations served at the beginning of a meal, known as amuse-bouche.

Another exotic plant that chefs are fond of is the fairy tale eggplant, which can be as small as 3 inches. Taylor introduced it to The French Laundry, and now it’s a staple in its menus.

Tucker’s produce grown on the estate garden is sold to restaurants such as Healdsburg’s Madrona Manor and Forestville’s Farmhouse Inn.

The synergy between grower and chef “gives chefs more choices when developing their menus,” Taylor said.

Visiting his garden gives people a better understanding about fresh food, he said.

“Most people don’t really understand what fresh food is,” Taylor said.

“Here we harvest in the morning, and it’s served a few hours later in our food and wine pairings (on the property) and in Healdsburg’s Partake by K-J (restaurant). When we harvest a flat of carrots in the morning, it smells like someone just pressed fresh carrot juice.”

The property will grow another round of 3,000 tomato plants to prepare for the winery’s Tomato Festival next September, and this high-tech farmer has a vision of it.

Taylor is hoping to install video cameras in the vineyard to record the growth from planting to harvest. The goal is to show it to guests at the Tomato Festival.

Gardening, it seems, is in Taylor’s genetic makeup. When he was growing up, his father, Jim Taylor, had a 3-acre garden on their property near Jacksonville, Florida.

Taylor’s whole family pitched in, including his mom, Connie Taylor, and his younger sister, Tammy Chambers, now 40.

“I remember always helping my dad out with his summer garden,” Taylor said.

“My father pushed me to do my best always. He instilled in me a strong work ethic.”

While Taylor established himself as a hard worker, finding his niche took some doing. Before he became the consummate grower, he studied finance and economics at the University of Florida, graduating in 1994.

While in college he worked at a credit union on campus, but realized the cubicle world wasn’t for him. Taylor went back to the University of Florida to study horticulture, graduating in 1998.

Taylor wanted the great outdoors to be his office.

“If I could get a message out to people,” Taylor said, “it would be, if you truly love what you’re doing in life, you’re no longer working for a living.”

You can reach Wine Writer ?Peg Melnik at 521-5310 or ?peg.melnik@pressdemocrat.com.