If you think moving from one house to another is hard work – and it is – just imagine moving a farm. In such a situation, finding sturdy boxes is the least of your worries.

Kevin DeBoer and his family have relocated their farm market and greenhouse operation from Chicago Heights, Illinois, to Lowell, Indiana. The distance is only 35 miles, but among other things, the move involved figuring out what to do with 17 greenhouses that the new owner of the Chicago Heights property didn’t need. In the end, eight were moved to the new location.

“We all had a lot of conversations about (the move),” DeBoer said. “Our faith is very important to us and we prayed a lot. We thought this was the move – that we were led to it. And it was a difficult one, but we think it'll be real good.”

The farm started in the mid-1950s when Kevin’s great-grandfather, Cornelius, bought land in Chicago Heights. “They were truck farmers” – small farmers who sell produce directly to the public – DeBoer explained. His grandparents, Big John and Stella, eventually took over and were succeeded by Kevin’s parents, John and Sandy.

Big John’s Farm Market & Greenhouses is now operated by Kevin and his wife, Lori (who have three sons); Sandy (John died of cancer a few years ago); and Kevin’s sister and brother-in-law, Jenn and Eric Yukon (who have two sons).

His grandparents and great-grandparents used to grow tomatoes for Campbell’s Soup, sugar beets and onion sets. It was John and Sandy who opened the farm market and then added flowers, plants and greenhouses.

“It just spiraled from there,” Kevin explained.

The farm now offers fruits and vegetables, annual and perennial flowers, greenhouse plants and herbs. Many of the sales are direct to consumers, but the farm also has a flourishing wholesale business.

In the fall, they offer autumn-blooming flowers as well as decorative corn and pumpkins.

Big John’s agritourism activities, which opened Sept. 15, include food, a corn maze, a kiddie train, a barrel train, a petting zoo and sports such as “hillbilly football” (which involves targets made of vegetable bins and tractor tires).

The decision to move to Indiana was a result of two factors coming together. First, the Chicago Heights area that the original farm was in had become industrial. In fact, DeBoer added, the new owner of the Chicago Heights property is a trucking company.

“Our whole area up there was starting to go real commercial, with trucks parking all around and ruining all the drainage for the farming,” DeBoer said.

Second was the new location itself. The original owners were the Kregel family, who operated it as Kregel’s Pumpkin Patch. The DeBoers and the Kregels knew each other – “My dad always loved this farm,” DeBoer said – and they knew the Kregels were thinking about retiring and moving closer to Indianapolis to be nearer their family.

The move itself was done incrementally. From Aug. 1 through Sept. 31, 2024, the DeBoers and their employees ran both the Chicago Heights and Lowell locations, and they continued with two locations from the spring of 2025 through July 3, 2025.

“We closed Chicago Heights on July 3 – that was our last day open in Chicago Heights, Illinois,” DeBoer said.

While closing the old market was bittersweet, DeBoer added that he and his entire family are feeling optimistic about the future.

“We're very proud that we're the fourth generation running it right now. And hopefully some of our boys will be interested in it, and they'll be the fifth generation,” he said.