Posted Mar 18, 2025
Tom Eich’s journey into farming didn’t start in the fields. It began in a fourth-grade classroom in St. Paul, Minnesota, where he was a teacher at a low-income, high-needs school back in 2016. It was there that he saw firsthand the impact of food insecurity and food injustice on his students.
“When you have hungry students, you have behavioral issues, you have performance issues, just in general,” Tom shared.
Tom would often bring food to his students, only to be called to the principal’s office. “The thinking was, since I can’t feed everybody, I shouldn’t be feeding anybody. But in my head, I was thinking, well, maybe I can.”
That desire to address food insecurity, paired with his own need for a more flexible lifestyle due to his epilepsy, led Tom back to his roots — quite literally. In 2018, Tom moved back to his family farm in Walkerton, Indiana, and began the transition from conventional row crop to Certified Naturally Grown vegetable production. It was there that Kankakee Valley Homestead was born.
“The Little Kankakee River actually runs through my farm,” Tom shared. “Growing up, the river was always huge to me. I loved boating, I loved fishing, I just loved being down at the park by the river. So when I started the farm, naming it after Kankakee just made sense. It’s not only important to me personally, but it’s also the lifeblood of the farm.”
What started as a quarter of an acre (about the size of a backyard garden) has since expanded to nearly 200 acres where the farm now grows a wide range of vegetables serving the northwest Indiana and Chicagoland area.
While Tom’s farm has grown tremendously, much of the day-to-day work still falls on his shoulders. Tom has a small but dedicated team, including his mother and sister, a few part-time farmhands, and some long-time assistants from Chicago.
“I would say about 70% of the on-farm work is still me,” he shared. “That’s why a lot of times you won’t see me at the markets.”
Unlike many farm businesses, Tom’s growth has been entirely organic — no loans, no major outside investments. That first year, he made just $300 at small farmers’ markets in Indiana.
“If we sold $40 in a day, we were having a good market,” he recalled.
But instead of rushing to expand, Tom worked to build the business slowly, ensuring quality remained a priority.
“We sell out almost every market,” he shared. “Staying small allows us to focus on keeping things fresh and high quality.”
For Tom, being a vendor at Green City Market has been a long-term goal. He first heard about Green City Market when he was still teaching in Minnesota.
“When I was planning the move back, I did a lot of research and came up with a five-year business plan,” he shared. “The goal for year five was getting into Green City Market.”
And that’s exactly what happened, with Kankakee Valley Homestead joining the farmers’ markets in 2022. Now, heading into their fourth outdoor season with Green City Market, Tom has since built strong connections with the community.
“We absolutely have regular customers,” he shared. “Plus, having cashiers from the community also helps a lot. They’re not just working the stand; they’re a connection to the community itself.”
For Tom, Green City Market has been more than just a place to sell produce — it’s also been a source of inspiration. He’s taken what he’s learned and brought it back to his own community in Indiana, such as GCM’s triple Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) matching program, GCM For All.
“We actually copied Green City Market’s food access program and started one at our LaPorte Farmers Market,” Tom shared. It’s one of the only programs of its kind in Indiana,” he says. “That’s something we put effort into starting, but it was Green City Market that gave us the inspiration.”
Tom has also been involved in GCM’s Edible Education programming, such as its Farm to Market Field Trips.
“Coming from a background as a teacher trying to expand food access and food systems education to students, this program aligns perfectly with the goals we had when starting the farm,” Tom shared.
Tom even credits Green City Market for expanding his own culinary tastes, where he has since discovered his love for the jibarito, a delicious sandwich invented at a Puerto Rican restaurant in Humboldt Park in the ‘90s.
Looking ahead, Tom looks forward to experimenting with new crops and techniques.
“Some will be terrific, and some will be horrible failures, but that’s okay,” he laughed. “That’s part of the process.”
The continued effects of climate change also play into Tom’s growing plans for the year.
“We aren’t seeing prolonged cold periods in the winter anymore, and that’s causing bug pressure to start a lot earlier in the spring,” he shared. “Insects are hatching sooner and getting into crops earlier, so we have to adjust. We don’t use sprays, so we’ve had to shift our growing seasons accordingly.”
Since he last spoke with GCM, Tom also shared how cuts to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) programs, specifically the Local Food for Schools (LFS) and Local Food Purchasing Assistance (LFPA) have impacted their business, in which those two programs combined contributed to 20% of Kankakee’s revenue over the last few years. Already, the farm has negotiated contacts for these now-gutted programs, bought seed and fertilizer, and scheduled out the farmers’ market schedule based on the assumption these programs would be running.
“Cutting these programs is going to cause measurable financial difficulty for myself and all associated small farmers, but more importantly the cuts are an attack against the food security of the most vulnerable age groups in our society,” Tom shared in an email to GCM.
For Tom, the revenue from these programs allowed his farm to not only feed his community, but it also made possible the SNAP matching program he had created at his local farmers’ market in Indiana.
“Truthfully it just makes me sad,” Tom shared. “We talked in the interview about how I was largely inspired into farming by a challenge to bring food into schools, and today that’s being taken away from both myself but also the children.”
Despite these challenges, Tom remains as optimistic as he can be.
“I’m still looking forward to spring — to watching the fields change, seeing the vegetables grow, and experimenting with new things,” he shared. “Every season is a new opportunity.”
Learn more about Kankakee Valley Homestead on Green City Market’s website and follow their Instagram here for the latest updates on the farm.
At Green City Market, we believe farmers' markets are a powerful instrument of a local food system, and we're dedicated to creating widely accessible marketplaces for local food in Chicago where farmers can make a living wage and connect directly with their customers. Visit our calendar for upcoming market dates and support our nonprofit work to deepen support for Midwest farmers like Tom here.