Tom Koch says that everyday feels like it’s out of a story book as he runs the Polish Heritage Farm (PHF) with his family in Cedar.
Koch’s farming journey started out in Detroit where he had an urban garden. Then, after having a conversation with an environmental scientist on a flight, Koch knew he had to make a change. The scientist he met explained that urban gardening in Detroit can never be as successful as Koch wanted it to be due to pollution getting into groundwater and soil.
“It really turned us off to the idea. We worked for years and years thinking we were doing a great thing and came to find out there’s no real way to mitigate the pollution in the groundwater,” said Koch.
After that, Tom and his wife, Kathleen, decided to get out of the city. The two of them narrowed down parameters to avoid as much pollution as possible on their new land and in 2014 happened to find Cedar. Not only was it the perfect place agriculturally, but also fit perfectly with their Polish heritage. Both Tom and Kathleen come from Polish immigrant families.
“It just seemed like we had the best happenstance ever when we pulled into Cedar only a few weeks before the Polka Fest they even had the Polish road signs ups!” said Koch.
Full blown agriculture was a new challenge since Koch and his family were used to being confined into a 30x100 city lot.
“The 14.5 acres was a really large and daunting piece of property when we first bought it but today it’s a little speck on the map to me,” said Koch. “Perspective goes really quickly out the window when you start cutting hay and putting livestock on the farm.”
The Koch’s raise Mangalista pigs, one of the oldest heritage breeds and slowest growing pigs. They also have a large herd of goats, two cows, one horse, and chickens.
Koch is very particular about how he feeds his animals, keeping them on an organic and nutrient rich diet. “You are what you eat,” explained Koch, “so we choose to use a barley and pea based diet (for the livestock) that gets you away from the facet of the possibility of any kind of GMO production. All around it’s a healthier choice for the environment, for the consumer, and for the animals.”
Koch is passionate about educating consumers about the quality of meat they buy and how you really do get what you pay for. He explained how even though his pigs take longer to grow and the meat might be more expensive than other types of pork, it's still worth it.
“What we raise is uniquely fantastic in terms of the quality of life of the animals and quality of the product. Even though it’s extremely fatty, the fat is healthier than olive oil by volume. And in terms of the benefits, it’s got as much omega as salmon oil.”
The care put into the animals is a reflection of the care put into Koch’s family.
Koch and his wife Kathleen both grew up in the Detroit area and he credits his work ethic to being raised by two entrepreneurial parents. “We both grew up in our parents’ stores or businesses as kids, and both learned a really, really, good, hard work ethic,” said Koch.
While he is grateful for the work ethic he gained from his childhood, he is happy to raise his kids outside of the city.
“Growing up in the city, it makes you a tough person, but it’s not necessarily the kind of tough you need to be in life after you’ve grown up. We wanted a wholesome community-based lifestyle where people know each other and like their neighbors and trust each other,” said Koch.
Part of what makes their community in Cedar so special is the shared Polish heritage and that heritage is part of what drew Tom and Kathleen to each other. Kathleen now works at the Polish Art Center in Cedar and works to create a space not only to buy beautiful products but also to learn about the history of the Polish community.
“You know, it takes one generation to just forget about (the culture) and not hold it near and dear, and then it’s gone. It was a foundation of our childhoods and what brings us together is Polish tradition and heritage at every turn,” said Koch.
Koch brings that heritage outside the farm by way of his food truck. He parks it behind the Polish Art Center and serves Polish recipes made with meat sourced from the family farm. The truck is incredibly popular and Koch has said he’s been getting questions about when they’ll open it back up for the summer for weeks now. Ideally they plan to open no later than the second week of June but can’t make any promises.
Ultimately, Tom Koch and his family couldn’t be happier with the life they’ve built here.
“It’s like fate brought us here. It’s driven everything, it’s just really wild! I feel like I live in a storybook everyday.”
