After obtaining a degree in finance from Miami University and then working thirteen years as the chief financial officer at a human resources firm, Tom had experienced enough of being indoors behind a desk and wanted to work out in nature. “So,” he explains, “when I saw that The Chef’s Garden was running an ad because they had an open position in the greenhouse, I applied.” When he went for the interview, “they looked at me like I had three heads,” he says, with a laugh, “but then I met with their directors and we came up with a plan to start me at the ground level because, although I’m a gardening hobbyist, I didn’t come from an agricultural background.” Tom then “bounced around with different areas” of the farm, including working in the greenhouse, then soil production and manufacturing, and now field operations. “This career isn’t at all what I expected,” he says, “but it’s such an amazing place to work, much more in-depth than I could have imagined. There are so many moving pieces to farming, ones that work symbiotically. Food production puts you in touch with nature, for sure, and it also puts life into perspective.” His daily work changes with the seasons, with preparation being the reoccurring theme – for Tom and for the rest of the farm team. “When spring is coming,” he says, “you’ve got to make sure the equipment is ready to go, the ground is prepared, and the seed is ready and available. When it’s harvest time, we need to make sure the process goes smoothly, from actually harvesting to transporting what’s needed to fulfill orders to the packing room. Plenty of teamwork is involved as we ensure everyone has what they need, bridging gaps that exist. And, no matter what the season, there is plenty of coordination needed between the field team and the office staff and then with sales and marketing.”
The biggest challenge, Tom says, is learning to deal with variables that are out of his control. “That could mean the weather,” he says, “or pests or disease. Flexibility is needed for farming daily, and we always need to learn from the past. What worked? What didn’t? How can we adapt?” The rewards significantly outweigh the challenges, he shares, and they include “the passionate and knowledgeable group of people that I work with. They have been so willing to help me out, which is important given my non-agricultural background. It’s incredible to be able to work outside with my hands in nature.” Another reward, of course, is having ready access to fresh vegetables, sustainably farmed. “My favorite,” Tom says, “is the English pea, which is interesting because I didn’t even know I was a pea fan until I tasted them at the farm. To me, they are the signal of summer being on the horizon and their abundance makes it worthwhile to include them in every single dish possible.” In the wintertime, Tom actually has three favorites: potatoes, carrots and oca. “Potatoes and carrots are a common crop,” Tom says, “but what’s readily available elsewhere doesn’t compare to what we grow. And, we’ve been trying to grow oca for several years now and finally have a marketable yield. Oca is a tuber from the Andes, a regular food source in Peru. It’s small and starchy, and really delicious.” When Tom isn’t working, he enjoys taking his dog to the beach, working around the house, reading – and, of course, gardening. When asked what people might not know about him, he says the following: “I’m the black sheep in the family because both of my parents are educators and my older sister is also a teacher, but I went a different route.” Tom, though, may be more like his family than he realizes, because his desire for lifelong learning is what led him to The Chef’s Garden after a career in finance, and it’s what keeps him finding innovate ways to oversee field operations – and that plays a crucial role in growing the delicious vegetables, greens, herbs and edible flowers that we do, year round.