“You’ve heard of enlightenment, right,” he says.

“Well this is en-lettucement.”

A pause.

We crack up. The tour continues.

We walk through the greenhouses with him spouting knowledge, me with pad of paper and number two pencil in hand.

I was spending the morning with Tony Bono of Flora Ridge Farm. It’s a hydroponic operation that he and his wife, Joy have run for over ten years in Mount Airy, North Carolina.

By the elaborate setup, I had assumed Tony had always done this. But like a growing number of today’s family farms, Flora Ridge is a first (and possibly single) generational farm.

“I started out in restaurants,” he shared. “My dad owned a popular sandwich shop in Pennsylvania, and I opened my first deli at 21. I make the best cheese steak sandwich you’ll ever taste!”

But just as business was peaking, he decided to move on. “I…