I’m Dr. Jonathan Leusden, DC. I practice chiropractic at Gentle Chiropractic Salt Lake and in Richfield, and if you found my paragliding page you already know about the flying. This page is about the third thing: home. Since 2011 I’ve lived in the Sevier Valley in central Utah, and over that time the place has turned into an orchard, a big and very mixed garden, and a small flock of sheep.
The orchard and the garden
The fruit trees went in about fifteen years ago: more than a hundred heirloom varieties of apple, pear, peach and plum, most of them chosen for flavor and history rather than what ships well or looks uniform in a bin.
Around and under the trees the planting is deliberately diverse. Grapes, currants, gooseberries and raspberries. Sunchokes, the Jerusalem artichokes that come back every year whether you ask them to or not. Perennial herbs and flowers, a long run of hollyhock varieties, and a good share of native plants that belong in this valley. Alongside all of that I put in a large annual vegetable garden every year. Most of what ends up on the table in summer and fall grows within a few hundred feet of the kitchen.
The whole place is built around getting a lot back for a reasonable amount of work. Perennials do most of the heavy lifting, since they return on their own each spring. Water goes exactly where it is needed through Netafim inline drip line and John Deere drip tape, which in a high-desert valley is most of the battle. The goal is balance: a farm that produces a lot without eating every evening I have.
The sheep
We run a small herd of Suffolk sheep, raised on pasture. About thirty lambs a year go to freezers in October, and they sell out. The price follows the market, so it moves year to year. If you are local and want some, reach out. You can text or call 435-612-0411, the same number as the practice.
The Flying Farm
We call the place the Flying Farm, and it’s meant literally. It sits in the same valley as Cove and Monroe Peak, the launches that bring pilots here from around the world, and on a good evening the flying starts right overhead.
The rest of it
Home, for me, is also my son, lifting weights, and laughing with friends, and flying whenever the weather turns perfect. I post more of that day to day than I could ever fit on a page like this. Follow along on Instagram or Facebook.
If you’re here for the practice
If you landed on this page looking for the chiropractor rather than the orchard: I’m Dr. Jonathan Leusden, DC, and I practice gentle, low-force chiropractic care (Open Source Technique) in Salt Lake City. Start at Gentle Chiropractic Salt Lake for treatment details and booking, or Gentle Salt Lake Chiropractor for more in-depth patient education. I also see patients in Richfield, Utah through Gentle Chiropractic Utah / Takeoff Consulting. You can book either location here. And if it’s the flying you’re after, read about that here.