FarmHer Profile: Elaina Fales, Teshuva Fields

Farm name and location: Teshuva fields in Crystal lake, IL. 

Years farming: 7 years farming

Products: Cut flowers and the best-selling flowers we grow are ranunculus, dahlias and foxglove. 

Reason for farming: I chose to farm because I see the importance of cultivating the land the Lord has given me, which is our farm and the earth we live in. In Hebrew it’s a term called, “Tikkun Olam” which means repairing the world, to fix, or set the world in order or shalom. 

Thoughts on being a woman farmer: I find being a women farmer is challenging since it really requires a lot of physical demands that as a woman, I am just not built for compared to a man. I see it as a challenge but I enjoy the challenge. 

Biggest joy: What truly brings joy or happiness to me is producing a crop that is perfect for a florist who cannot stop talking about it. 

Main challenge: My biggest challenge lately has been growing in the winter and dealing with mice, voles and moles eating lots of my crops that I bank on for the spring. 

Future plans: The future of our farm is to continue in wholesale (direct to florists) and maintain the farm until my three sons are a tad older so I can venture to Chicago and do one farmers market in Chicago and direct-to-florist sales. 

Regenerative practices: We do regenerative practices and no-till by only using a tiller for breaking ground in a new area on the farm. We use a tilther (cultivator) implement to “fluff” the soil for our dahlias and our high tunnel Berta (a rotary plow) after ranunculus, campanula, foxglove, and delphinium so we can get celosia, marigold, mums, and dahlias in.