Eshelman Pioneers Ind. Farm-to-Table Push
Published: Friday, January 24, 2020
"If I can make it there, I'll make it anywhere"
As a fledgling member of the New York Yankees' front office, Pete Eshelman heard that line from Frank Sinatra's rendition of "New York, New York" at every game played in the Bronx.
He was in his early 20s and transitioning into the business side of baseball after his time as a farmhand in the club's minor league system—he was a promising lefthanded pitcher and first baseman—was cut short by a torn rotator cuff.
In many respects, at 66, Eshelman is still a farmhand.
But for the last two decades, "anywhere" has been Columbia City and Roanoke, which are separated by about a million miles from the Big Apple on the city spectrum.
What hasn't changed for Eshelman is the size and scope of the enterprise.
This year, Eshelman and his wife Alice are celebrating the 20th anniversary of their founding of the Joseph Decuis fine-dining restaurant, the crown jewel of what is arguably the New York Yankees of the farm-to-fork movement.
Known for its world-renowned Wagyu beef and all-natural-all-the-time approach to cattle and vegetable growing, Decuis Farms and its offshoots—which include a casual restaurant and country store, and two bed-and-breakfast inns—has become a must-visit destination for international food aficionados and tourists in search of an off-the-beaten-track experience, alike.
Decuis hosts weddings and other receptions along with corporate retreats and political conclaves. It wouldn't be unheard of to see a professional athlete training on the farm's rolling hills.
The concept for Decuis germinated with the business philosophy that George Steinbrenner, the late, bombastic owner of the Yankees, shared with Eshelman in the confines of Yankee Stadium.
"I was just a young guy in the front office in '77 when we won the World Series," Eshelman said. "You can imagine that experience being around all those Yankee greats—Billy Martin, Mickey Mantle, Joe DiMaggio.
"Steinbrenner really put me under his wing and was one of my great mentors. He taught me about how to really win in a big-league world, and how to compete. He just had the will to win, and a single-minded purpose. He was tough, but if he didn't blast you, he didn't love you."
The first rule of business is to find a niche and fill it, and Eshelman has demonstrated a knack for doing just that throughout his entrepreneurial journey.
"I was very fortunate, at 22 years old, to be in that environment and be part of something," he said. "I was a nobody, if you think about it. Here I am, a broken-down baseball player, but I'm a sponge. I'm in meetings with Steinbrenner, and the coaches and the hall-of-famers, and so I think I got my dose of understanding from that. The plan was to take Steinbrenner's idea and turn it into a business. What are the chances of that happening?"
After seeing Steinbrenner secure an insurance policy from Lloyds of London—because no such product was available in America—to protect a new $5 million contract signed by slugger Reggie Jackson, Eshelman saw an opportunity. He started his own U.S.-based insurance company to underwrite a plethora of sports and entertainment contracts across the country.
Thirty-four years ago, Fort Wayne-based Lincoln National Life recruited Eshelman to add his sports component to their motor-sports department, so he and Alice moved their family from Boston to Indiana.
"But I didn't like working for a big company, so I started a sports insurance business in the basement of my house, which is right here (in Columbia City) in 1989," Eshelman said. "And then, we grew like a weed, so I bought an old building in Roanoke, which was a small community that was falling apart. It was cheap and it was on the way to the airport. We were competing against billion-dollar companies, but we were smart."
Eshelman's investment sparked the revitalization Roanoke continues to enjoy.
"We ended up buying hundreds of thousands of square feet in 25 buildings and fixing them up," he said. "The whole farming thing started because a great way to engage with people is through dining. That's our family history going back to 1720, so I bought an old bank, fixed it up, set up a dining room, hired a chef and then we would have confidential meetings."
Next came the Joseph Decuis restaurant, named for an ancestor who lived in New Orleans and the crown jewel of the Eshelman agri-empire.
"Mr. Eshelman's establishment and beef operation is unique," said John Woodmansee, Purdue University Extension educator for Whitley County. "It gives local and regional consumers a choice they cannot find anywhere else. He has also supported efforts to promote local foods in Northeast Indiana."
Born in New Orleans and raised in Dayton, Eshelman traces his business DNA to the Yankees, whose mantra is, "If you're going to do something, be the best in the world at it," he said. "So we opened Joseph Decuis with a mission to have one of finest fine-dining restaurants in America.
"As you get into that, a restaurant is all about ambiance, great service and great food. The great food piece is, if you can control the ingredients, you have an advantage. So we lived on this property and had 100 acres, and always admired farmers. We actually started by growing squash blossoms. Then we started to grow whatever we could for the restaurant or source locally. That was way before the farm-to-table movement, but it made sense."
One taste of Wagyu, "the best beef in the world," steered Eshelman into the livestock business.
Today, his operation raises 85 head of Wagyu beef cattle a year along with free-range hens, mangalista pigs, goats, sheep and turkeys and horses that pull the carriages used to give visitors tours of the Columbia City compound. It also grows 150 varieties of vegetables and herbs for the restaurant.
"The farm not only became production and a place to live, but it became a venue for events," Eshelman said. "We started out doing a lot of things for kids, especially disadvantaged kids who've never been on a farm, teaching them about food, how it's raised, where it comes from."
A couple of years ago, Decuis' educational component has evolved into a series called Culinary Diplomacy, a series that allows area chefs and cooks to share their ethnic recipes with the help of Decuis chefs.
All this from someone who started with zero farming experience.
"I learned from business that you hire the people that you need," Eshelman said. "My farm manager, John Pulver, who just retired at 80 years old, is a fifth-generation Indiana farmer. We combined my knowledge of business with his knowledge of farming and formed a really good team. He could write a book on how to train horses and raise cattle. I love the physical work. It's enjoyable."
Eshelman has been the subject of a documentary and featured in a cooking-based television show. He's the author of three books, including one on Roanoke, and working on another. He's beginning his second term as president of the American Wagyu Assoc. and Joseph Decuis ranks among the top 50 farm-to-table restaurants in the nation.
Despite a profile that's higher than that of a typical farmer, he believes his Decuis operation complements Indiana's predominantly commodity-focused agriculture and can serve as a model for farmers looking for new ways to do business.
"We're very proud to be part of the Indiana agricultural heritage and industry," Eshelman said. "We just have a specialty niche in the bandwith of what people do. If you think about it, what's the gross revenue for one acre of corn today —$600 last year? One acre doing our vegetables equals $100,000 of revenue. So, it's just a whole different mindset of farming. But it's not about quantity, it's about quality."
Decuis raises its Wagyu from conception to consumption, and harvests about 40 head a year. Every part of the animal, from nose to tail, is used. For example, after the chefs make broth and demiglace out of the bones, they're turned into super-hot-burning, chemical-free charcoal.
While Eshelman loves Wagyu, he professes to eat two vegetarian meals a week.
"It's just a nice thing, but I'm definitely a carnivore," he said. "In America, we eat cowboy steaks, but two-and-a-half ounces of (Wagyu), and I'm a big eater, is all I can handle because it's so nutrient dense and rich."
The Eshelmans are more than willing to talk to farmers about diversification and to local community leaders about how to get re-established in a localized, food-based economy.
"I call it specialized agriculture and it works," Eshelman said. "It's proven to be an economic driver to revive a little town. Roanoke is absolute proof of local food economy bringing back a little town. Those buildings were vacant 30 years ago and now they're filled up and getting premium prices for rent.
"Alice and I don't tell people what to do, we just tell them our story. You're teaching people how to feed themselves; you're teaching independence. The opportunities are endless. We've got to get more creative thinking into agriculture."
Return to Top of Page