Photo of Dave in a windswept field, holding a basket of colorful produce

Meet Dave Kaiser: The Man Behind the Photographs

Updated on Jun 17, 2019
By Shannon McCabe

Dave Kaiser stands in a cornfield with half an orange watermelon in each hand and another small watermelon tucked into the top of his bib overalls

Whether you are driving down US Highway 60 or perusing a Baker Creek Seed catalog, you surely must have seen a photograph of our own David Leroy Kaiser, more simply known as Dave. While he has been a fixture around Baker Creek since the inception of the company, he has recently achieved “celebrity” status as the star of Baker Creek silent films.

Dave was the starring character in a history of bread film called "The Life and Death of Wholesome Bread" in which we showed how bread making had remained largely unchanged for thousands of years before modern methods brought unsavory ingredients to the average dinner table. In a longer and more involved film starring Dave as the main character, along with other Baker Creek faces, is a Western-themed film titled "The GMO Round Up."

Dave sits in front of a fruit tree in the Baker Creek restaurant garden

 

Dave says that it seems like yesterday when he was growing up barefoot and with a butch haircut on a small farm in Iowa. Cultivating a garden with two-row equipment and hand hoeing, he was raising lots of tomatoes, corn, potatoes, squash “and such.” He calls this “good food from yesteryear.” Dave sums his thoughts of Baker Creek when he says, “Good seeds leads to good produce, which leads to good health. That’s what it’s all about!”

Dave, a grey-bearded man wearing a pale blue shirt and straw hat, leans on a wooden fence

Dave's history with Jere Gettle began in the early 1990s when Dave Kaiser moved his family from Iowa to rural Mansfield, Missouri, and settled just down the road from where the Gettle family was living. Dave recalls Jere showing off his gardens and saying that someday he was going to sell seeds. Dave thought that was a nice little hobby for a home-schooled boy. As time passed and Jere's “little hobby” grew, Dave continued to be involved with the process that was quickly evolving into a business. Dave and Jere would travel from the East Coast to the West Coast of the United States, and to Mexico and Thailand “seeing the world and gathering seeds and learning about life.”

 

Dave, wearing a battered old felt hat, cradling a small chicken next to his ear

 

Dave Kaiser says that he was long a neighborhood “roamer” when he made his home in an older, used travel trailer that he parked wherever he could find a spot, often on Baker Creek property. Then Jere conceived the idea to build a cabin for Dave to live in. It would be placed in a prominent location on the Baker Creek farm, would architecturally blend in with the other historic-looking buildings, and would provide a living area for Dave to be the “eyes and ears” of Baker Creek during nights and weekends when the business is closed. As a result, visitors to Baker Creek headquarters often see Dave walking his dog, Soldier, playing the fiddle as Rocky the donkey “sings” along, or tasting the garden produce. Being a “people person,” Dave loves the Baker Creek festivals when he gets to meet and converse with all the different visitors. Judging from the questions and comments that we get, visitors love Dave, too.

 

Dave reads a picture book to young Sasha Gettle as a cream-and-grey cat with blue eyes looks on

 

CHECK OUT THE VIDEOS FEATURING DAVE (BELOW) AND ALL OUR OTHER VIDEOS ON OUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL