Our Farm, Our Story

Divided across two parcels, our 7.5 acres in Northern Iroquois County is a beautiful sandy loam and sits near the Indiana border, across from a 9000 acre wildlife area.  The desire to have our own farm began long before we bought land in 2016, aspirations often discussed while working together on the back of a transplanter on other farms or while driving in Chicago traffic.  We had long dreamed of marrying the desire to grow food for the local economy with a social mission.  ‍ ‍ Over the last twenty years we have been working in the ‘fields’ of small scale agriculture, urban agriculture, education, immigrant advocacy and more—all these are infused in the ways we are building the farm and the community growing around Earthlore Farm. We took the first several years of our farm’s life to develop infrastructure and experiment, while maintaining off-farm jobs to support this venture, as well as growing our family to its current state of 3 kids–ages 9, 5 and 6 months.  We experimented with crops and growing techniques, developed beginning infrastructure, and trialed market channels and partnerships between 2016 and 2022. From 2023 to the present year, we have scaled up our operation by building needed infrastructure, hired employees, cultivated a CSA program, wholesale partnerships and developed multiple on-farm gatherings. We grow about 1.5 acres of mainly vegetables, melons and herbs using all organic practices. Central tenants of our growing practices are; low-till, crop rotation, preventative pest/disease control, diversity and combining perennials into annual systems. Growing community, striving for financial viability and growing quality produce are what we are balancing at Earthlore Farm.

  • Co-owner/Operations

    Earthlore Farm is co-owned and managed by Ben Jaffe. Ben handles the crop planning, project planning and building, employee management, wholesale sales and more at Earthlore. Ben brings 14 years experience in the non-profit side of community-based agriculture and 7 plus years experience helping run rural farms of various scales. Most recently (while developing Earthlore Farm) he was the Director of Chicago Lights Urban Farm, where he worked for eight years. In this role he coordinated staff, budgets, program visioning, educational programs and production and distribution practices on a ¾ acre farm and community center in the Cabrini Green/Near North community.

    Prior to this he worked for the Windy City Harvest program as Instructor, for the Chicago Park District and prior to living in Chicago he worked on diversified vegetable farms in the Midwest and East Coast that ranged in size from 2 to 30 acres in cultivation.

  • Co-Owner/CSA Manager/WeedEO

    Caitlin wears many hats on the farm, including managing our CSA progam and staying on top of the weeds as the ‘Weed Executive Officer’. She brings many years of applying a realistic eye to Ben’s wild ideas as well as a Masters in Education and Waldorf Early Childhood Teaching. She has taught at the Waldorf Teaching Institute, the Chicago Waldorf School and Urban Prairie Waldorf School (where she served as Director of Early Childhood). She is also a fluent Spanish speaker and a certified Interpreter and previously worked doing grant writing for a community based immigrant rights non-profit.