Veronica Mars star Jason Dohring explains why he stepped away from Hollywood for surprising new career

Jason Dohring has personally planted around 3,500 trees since walking away from acting, and the Veronica Mars star says he's now working on his third farm.

The actor, best known for playing Logan Echolls in the cult teen drama, hasn't appeared on screen since a stint on SEAL Team back in 2021.

Instead, he's spent recent years growing food, with a lofty long-term goal of feeding thousands of people.

Speaking on the podcast Don't Do Nothing, Dohring explained his pivot began almost by accident during the pandemic, when a growing interest in gardening completely took over his life.

"I sort of got into gardening, and I was like, dude, this is so cool," he said.

He admitted the shift was so consuming that the outside world barely registered.

“I didn’t even notice Covid for months ‘cause I was in my backyard, just gardening,” he said. “It wasn’t a huge thing. I got an interest in it.”

Jason Dohring played Logan Echolls in Veronica Mars and last appeared on screen in SEAL Team in 2021. (Photo by Jim Spellman/Getty Images)

Why did Jason Dohring stop acting?

Dohring didn't dramatically quit Hollywood, he just told his representatives he needed a break to focus on farming, with the door left open for a return.

“I told my agents, ‘I’m just gonna go farm for a minute,’” he recalled. “They said, ‘We’re still gonna send you stuff.’ I said, ‘Okay, fine.’ I’ll probably jump back into it at some point.”

That door hasn't stayed fully shut. Dohring revealed he recently agreed to appear in a friend's short film as a favor, and the experience reignited something in him. “I love art. And when I get around art, even talking about this, is exciting to me,” he said. “I’m already like, ‘Oh, s---, I wanna go back to it.’”

Dohring said his long-term goal is to grow food for 5,000 people through his own farming venture. (Photo by Daniel Boczarski/Getty Images for Hulu)

What has Jason Dohring been growing on his farm?

The bulk of Dohring's hands-on work has taken place on 14 acres in West Virginia, where he's grown cold-climate fruit that wouldn't survive in his home state of Florida.

“We did apples, pears, peaches, cherries, nectarines, all the cold weather stuff that you can’t do here in Florida because those trees need a certain amount of cold weather to make fruit,” he explained.

Central to his approach is a total rejection of chemical pesticides.

Rather than spraying his crops, Dohring said he spent three months physically wrapping his trees in landscape fabric to protect them.

“We haven’t sprayed once on our farm,” he said. 'And we’re doing it with great success.'

He's framed the entire venture as more than agriculture, describing it as a creative pursuit in its own right. 'The flavor of food can be so amazing,' he said.

“And there’s an art that you can create, too, with the way your farms are built and stuff.”

Looking ahead, Dohring said his ambition is to eventually grow food for 5,000 people, building something akin to an exclusive wine club, but centered entirely on quality produce.

Ultimately, though, he insists the specific path matters less than the underlying mission.

“I really, honestly, just want to help people, in whatever way, whether it’s farming, gardening, education, art - I just love it,” he said.