Though it’s easy to be tempted by the notion of perfection, Eric Lachance’s vision for farming in Rhode Island doesn’t succumb to the folly of utopia, but rather his sights are on a more realistic, attainable prize. Eutopia Homesteads, he explains, refers to the Greek version of the word, meaning simply a “good place.” “At the end of the day,” he says, “we just want to create a good place where people can enjoy getting back to nature. That’s really the goal in terms of how human beings should be living.”
For now, Lachance runs his small operation from his home in Exeter, with a focus on low square-footage, high-value crops, but he’s currently in the process of seeking funding and land to expand the business. The dream is to have the acreage to diversify his offerings and grow enough produce to have a CSA (community-supported agriculture) subscription service. In the meantime, five-gallon buckets burgeon with a wide variety of oyster mushrooms, and flats of microgreens fill tables at farmstands where he makes appearances.
Lachance was a mechanic before he was a farmer, and also holds a degree in accounting. When he met his wife Rachel Pelisson, a nutritionist and herbalist, she opened his eyes to some of the toxic impacts of chemical-based farming practices, and he set out to learn more by getting his hands in the dirt. “I worked on other farms for about four years,” he says, including Little River Farms in Exeter, Little Bit Farm in North Kingstown, and others. He decided to start his own business last January. Along with the humble homebase, he also rents an eighth of an acre from his former boss and mentor Bob Payne at Little River.
A key component of Eutopia Homesteads is employing chemical-free, environmentally friendly practices. When asked why this is important to him, he says simply, “I have kids” – a daughter and stepdaughter who often accompany him at markets. “I want to be able to pass down my farm, but also the planet, to the next generation someday and leave it trending in the right direction, and be able to have the peace of mind that I was part of the solution instead of the destruction.”
But Lachance has also learned through trial and error along the way that there’s no easy solution, especially for farmers just getting started, to achieve perfect sustainability in an economically feasible way. Plastic use is a big concern, but even many produce storage bags marketed as compostable won’t break down in backyard compost bins, only in facilities that use fossil fuels. To work around this, he says, “I’ve experimented with giving people big discounts to bring their own containers, and I sell my mushrooms in brown paper products. It’s a battle – trying to succeed and be profitable at the same time so that I can reach that end vision.”
The mushroom buckets are an alternative to the single-use plastic bags commercial growers often use, and he prepares inoculated buckets for customers to grow at home, too. “It’s already colonized and you just stick it outside in the spring or fall.” During winter or summer, the bucket fungi can be supported inside with the right humidity. “You can hang it in the bathroom, and the humidity will actually help trigger them to fruit.”
But your home need not become a science project to enjoy Lachance’s harvests. Spring also yields plenty of microgreens, along with salad greens like spinach, medicinal and culinary herbs, and limited quantities of produce like cherry tomatoes and summer squash.
Looking ahead to the future of his budding farm, in Lachance’s definition of eutopia there exists a crop you may not expect to find, if you’ve even heard of it: the kiwi berry. “It’s a fruit that would be ideal for organic growing because you don’t have to spray pesticides or fungicides, and I think it would bode well for my real vision,” he says, describing an experience that would let visitors stay on the farm.
“We need to bring people back to knowing the seasonality of our local foods,” he emphasizes. “The best thing for everybody is to try our best to shop local because it’s better for the planet and also our local economy.” Follow @eutopia.homesteads on Instagram for farmers market appearances, workshops, and more.
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