A Conversation with Jon Jackson

Some people arrive in your life as a name first. For years, Jon Jackson existed in my world purely as a recommendation — handed to me like a gift whenever I needed something no ordinary person could provide. When my butterfly-chasing brain convinced me, briefly and gloriously, that I might take up falconry, someone said call Jon Jackson. Need an heirloom pig? Jon’s your guy. Old growth okra seeds from Africa? Same answer. I started to wonder if he might genuinely be the most interesting man in the world.

Then I learned the rest of it.

Jon Jackson is a decorated combat veteran — a U.S. Army Airborne Ranger who served six tours overseas. When he came home as a hundred percent disabled vet, he said nothing spoke to him — except growing food. So he built something. Comfort Farms sits just outside Milledgeville, Georgia — a therapeutic and training agricultural facility named in honor of his fallen Ranger brother, Captain Kyle Comfort, killed in action in 2010. A lover of culture, history, ancestry, and good food, Jon will tell you, “I love to understand how all of our cultures collide through food.”

The man saved himself by putting his hands in the dirt, and then turned around and started saving everyone else.

Last week, a bottle of whiskey between us, surrounded by a few good friends, I finally got to sit with the man behind the myth. His soul was exactly what I’d hoped for — bright, wide open, and generous in the way that only truly rooted people can be. I left that night feeling genuinely honored. You’re going to understand why.