FarmHer Profile: Soraya Alem and Jarvi Schneider, Otter Oaks Farm

Farm name and location: Otter Oaks Farm, Woodstock, IL

Years farming: Since 2022

What are you growing/producing? Best-seller? We grow a variety of specialty crops. Our biggest successes have been sungold tomatoes, collards, kale and rainbow chard.

Why farming? We chose farming because of our history on our own families’ farms, to help expand access to local, organically-grown foods, and to create a shared creative space on land of our own.

How do you feel about being a woman-identified farmer? When I think about it, I feel very proud, especially as a queer woman and Jarvi as a trans farmer. We were lucky to start our farm in Chicago through organizations whose mission it is to help women, queer and BIPOC farmers succeed.

I have utilized every resource provided and it has shown the incredible strength, resilience, and fortitude of the people that keep the wheels of local food-networks going.

We definitely haven’t built Otter Oaks Farm alone, and that’s what all the women in my life that raised taught me about being a woman; supporting others and letting them support you. 

Biggest win/what makes you happiest? Our biggest win is getting to be a part of The Working Farms Fund, helping us achieve our greatest dreams of stewarding and protecting land that  can support our farm, other farmers, community events and our family. 

Biggest challenge? The biggest challenge has been the unexpected obstacles that pop-up with every project, especially now as we are expanding our growing capacity and building infrastructure in Woodstock. Everyday is a new mound of choices to make, but each challenge we face makes us more resilient and moves us closer to seeing our vision come to life.

How are you thinking about your farm in the future? Even though we have so much to occupy our minds with in the present, we are always driven by what we see for our future. We see multiple acres of specialty and nutrient-dense crops, a refurbished dairy barn to share with others, a thriving incubator program for young farmers, and a place where people feel safe to gather and connect through food and music. 

“Regenerative /ecological” practices on the farm? We practice no-till, crop rotation, cover cropping, sister planting, and though we are not certified, all of our crops are grown organically.

Anything else you want to share? We are so excited to join the McHenry county community of farmers! Since acquiring our land in Woodstock last year, we have felt so welcomed and can’t wait to meet more growers.

How are you thinking about your farm in the future? When we make decisions for our farm, we try to make them in reverse. That is, we try to think of ourselves farming at 85. Will this layout work in January when we are 85? How much help would we need to load hogs when it’s just the two of us? While it would be great to hand our farm to the kids, 10 acres could never be enough for 6 families to live on, and we don’t expect any of our children would choose to farm in the future, though they may. To be able to keep it up as we age would be nice, but also having it set up so that it’s productive and ready for someone else to take over is a major goal. I don’t believe that there is such a thing as a small farm. Our property produces a lot and is capable of producing more in time. As the population in McHenry County grows, I see farms like ours being at the forefront of feeding people here, the same way that farms of our scale feed the majority of the world. If we don’t take action to preserve acreages like ours now, the solutions to feeding the future will be much more complicated.

“Regenerative /ecological” practices on the farm? While a huge tenet of my growing philosophy is to be self-contained, our farm can’t produce the animal protein that it does without off-farm inputs from local grain producers. I think something that sets us apart from other farms in the area is my hyper-awareness of water usage. I grew up in the West where water is more valuable than gold. I worry about us bringing too much water up from area aquifers to frivolously irrigate. I have crazy theories about groundwater being introduced into the water cycle, causing more of the severe weather we are seeing globally, and really think that most producers could grow utilizing less water than we do here if we implemented better strategies in our vegetable production.