When Joe and I moved from Chicago with our four children in 2003, we expected our lives to change, but never imagined this complete shift. Joe had been in finance – buying and selling commodities at the Chicago Board of Trade when his company decided to relocate to Traverse City. I left my career in architecture, packed up the house, and prepared the family for our new adventure. Our young children, Sophie, Ellen, Joey, and Jimmy were up for a new experience, yet apprehensive about leaving their hometown and huge extended family including 29 cousins, many of whom they saw daily.
We fell for Traverse City instantly. Small town life brought newfound freedom for the kids and the great outdoors offered countless opportunities. We spent evenings and weekends exploring our surroundings and often found ourselves visiting farms — picking apples, peaches, cherries, berries, and chestnuts, petting goats or running through corn mazes. We couldn’t pass a roadside farm stand without picking up some goodies. The workplace, on the other hand, had become less appealing. The financial futures industry began to change in the early 2000s, and Joe found himself less interested in the work and decided to look elsewhere, hoping to open his own business. We knew there had to be something better than sitting at a desk every day especially in this agricultural region. At about that time, one of the farms that we visited most often and that our family loved went on the market and we came close to purchasing a 35-acre apple and cherry orchard. The size of the farm, however, was daunting for a family that had never farmed before, as was the fear of loosing an entire crop to frost or rain. We began looking at smaller farming operations and found TLC Tomatoes, a hydroponic tomato farm nestled in the rolling hills of Leelanau County a few miles north of Suttons Bay where all the growing was done in greenhouses, protected from harsh weather and pests.
We purchased the farm mid-season with a full crop of Beefsteak tomatoes and Bibb lettuce already in place, and the former owners on site to guide us. Now called TLC Farms, our family business pairs old school work ethic with new school technology to grow beautiful produce from early summer through an extended fall season. Hydroponic farming involves growing crops without soil, using water to deliver organic nutrients to the plants. This type of closed environment agriculture allows us to produce beautiful, nutritious, and exceptionally delicious crops without the use of chemical pesticides or fertilizers. Over the last few years, we have expanded into more greenhouses and have varied the crops that we grow based on market demand, personal preference, and customer feedback. We grow dozens of varieties of lettuce and other greens like kale, chard, bok choy, arugula, spinach, tatsoi, broccoli greens, assorted herbs, microgreens, and mountains of basil. The beefsteak tomato is still our largest crop, but we now grow a huge variety of tomatoes, including the ever-popular cherry tomato mix of 5 varietals, and of course, the heirlooms!! Because we are on a constant search for the most unique and flavorful heirlooms, we try new varieties every year – we now grow more than 40 varieties. Cucumbers, eggplant, an assortment of sweet and hot peppers, tomatillos, green beans, melons, and potted herbs grow alongside the tomatoes. This year we grew quite a bit of garlic and we’re eager to try more field crops in the future.
Mondays and Thursdays are harvest days where we have a small crew (which has often included one or more or our children) handpick hundreds of pounds of tomatoes. On these days, Joe calls our restaurant and grocery store customers to determine how many tomatoes and heads of lettuce they need. I also put in lettuce and tomato orders for the 5 farmers markets that we participate in every week throughout the season and to stock our retail tomato shop on site.
Each of our children has all helped us maintain and grow the business. Our son Jimmy, still in high school, was our lead lettuce manager for a few seasons. He was responsible to harvest and package all the lettuce for the wholesale and retail orders, monitor the amount of organic nutrients being fed to the plants, and maintain a clean and functioning greenhouse. Joey spent a few summers running the Sarah Hardy Farmers market with me on Saturday mornings – setting up and stocking our booth with beautiful produce to sell and creating and maintaining relationship with our customers, especially those who we saw many times a week. Ellen is our company bookkeeper during our busy season when Joe is knee deep in tomatoes and does not have time to run that end of the business. Our Sophie was the least thrilled with our new lifestyle, but has come around slowly, mostly because she loves the product! She has helped plant lettuce, package goods for the farmers’ markets, and has become an expert weeder! In the fall, when we participate in pop-up farmers markets at the local schools, Sophie sets up and runs our booth – selling our goods and offering samples to children who are curious about vegetables they’ve been hesitant to try.
A few years ago, we moved onto the farm, simplifying our lives in many ways. Our commute to work is a walk across the yard to the greenhouses, and we no longer worry about the state of the business when we aren’t there — the temperature of the greenhouse in the winter or the height of summer, or the well-being of the plants, for example. I love that we are right here when a customer comes into the tomato shop at odd hours. In fact, one of our favorite things about running this business has been the relationships that we have formed with people that we have met on the farm and at the markets – those that live in the area and shop with us regularly, and those that come to the area every summer and visit us. Customer feedback has encouraged us to expand the offerings in The Tomato Shop, which is attached to the main greenhouse and is open from May to early November during daylight hours. We offer a huge variety of tomatoes, and a fridge stocked with lettuce, gourmet greens, cucumbers, peppers, and other seasonal produce. Bags of basil and bunches of parsley and mint are always available as are basil plants in a variety of sizes.
Gourmet goods that complement our produce fill the shelves and cooler: imported and local cheeses, charcuterie items, olive oils, vinegars, pantry items, specialty salts, snacks, and olives are among the offerings as are unique gift items. Come in and see what we have to offer – were always happy to give a tour to show off our unique growing operation and the beautiful and delicious produce that our family grows. The best relationship that has grown on the farm is the one that we have with each other and with our family. There is a whole new level of togetherness, acceptance, understanding, and love that comes from living and working together every day.