Guy Jones is outstanding in his field.

It's just karmatically cool," says Jerry Crocker, chef-owner of Holbert's Catering and Back Yard Bistro in Montgomery. "Even if I'm in a bad mood when I go, it feels good to be there." What is this epicenter of positive energy Crocker is describing? It's Guy Jones' Blooming Hill Farm in Blooming Grove.

At this Orange County farm, the many-windowed, dirt-floored barn is nestled in a hollow next to a running stream.  I find Jones sitting outside of it on a shaded bench with a gaggle of very hip event planners, wrapping up a discussion of farm weddings. Hundreds of garlic braids hang from the barn rafters, pints of blackberries sit on the rusty wood stove, and brown bags of sweet corn are ready to load onto his trucks. Picnic tables with umbrellas, a firebrick pizza oven, and a small kitchen, now stacked with crates of peaches, all invite weekend visitors. Bright blue buckets, black-eyed Susans, and faded red fruit crates add style and color to the place. "Hudson Valley Cheeses" says one wooden sign; "Sage $6" is lettered on the blackboard.

Blooming Hill Farm is 160 acres surrounded by 4,000 more of state land; Jones has had 40 acres here under organic cultivation for 26 years, making him one of the pioneers of the Greenmarket in Manhattan. "Twenty years ago we had iceberg and Idahos, like everyone else," he says, smiling out from under incongruous blond curls. "The super-star chefs were just ordinary guys then" but they quickly recognized Jones' quality produce and built his niche of custom growing for restaurants. "Now we grow six different kales, five chards, eight radicchios, dandelions, weird tomatoes."

Ironically, today's greater "demand for quality" has created more competition for Jones. "Even the big distributors and supermarkets have upped their game. We have to educate chefs even more about the impact of buying local. Organic doesn't matter—all small-scale farmers are moving towards low input and are doing a better job."

He stopped going to the Union Square Green Market six years ago, replacing that business with the on-farm retail operation and two 110-family consumer-supported agriculture (CSA) schemes. In the summer he operates a weekly farmstand on nearby land, where 26 CSA members also till a community garden. This ability to respond and change is part of how Blooming Hill has flourished over time.

Jones' customers rave. "I can't say enough for the righteous quality of Blooming Hill's stuff," says Crocker. "It's pristine. I don't know how he does it." Executive Chef Caroline Fidanza, of Diner and Marlow & Sons, both in Brooklyn, says Jones' greens are "phenomenal," and his herbs, "spectacular. This spring we started using his lamb's quarters in salads—what a revelation! And the cardoons too."

Suddenly Jones jumps up from his bench to add his burly heft to loading the truck so it can get going. Delivery is an important factor in connecting city restaurants to Hudson Valley farms. Crocker can pick up at the farm, but for Fidanza, Blooming Hill's delivery to her Brooklyn restaurants "has changed everything. And we make it worth the farmers' while; we buy a lot." In the summer, nearly everything in her two restaurants, as well as their Mexican restaurant, Bonita, is local.

A sampling of the crops at Blooming Hill Farm.

When Jones returns, he's got a ripe peach for me in his cracked hand. As I try to keep the juices from dripping down my shirt, we turn to the topic of the ever-greater costs of petroleum-based agri-business, now working in his favor. "'Small farms' petroleum use is modest," he says. Blooming Hill relies on hand labor—in early August, Jones had four people weeding full-time, and a small farm can flex and tolerate what larger businesses can't. "Two years ago I paid a little more for local," says Crocker. "Now, with high production and shipping costs, local produce is not only a better product, it's cost-effective." Fidanza compensates for any premium she pays (which she calls "reasonable") for local produce by making it star. " We focus on great vegetables rather than protein, and budget accordingly."