RWD#11 Humble Hands Harvest / Queer Farmer Network - Hannah Breckbill

Humble Hands Harvest is a worker-owned co-operative farm located just outside of Decorah (Iowa). Founded in 2013, Humble Hands grows 2+ acres of organic vegetables, in addition to grass-finished sheep, pastured pork, and fruit and nut trees, all distributed through annual CSA (community supported ag shares) as well as at the Decorah Farmers Market. Today’s guest Hannah Breckbill, along with farm partner Emily Fagan, found the farm’s long-term home in 2017 just 10 miles from Decorah, on ancestral lands tracing back to Sauk, Meskwaki, Lakota, and Ho-chunk tribes, and began functioning as a worker-owned co-operative that same year.

While Humble Hands main work has been responsible food farming, it just so happens that they are also helping grow a revolution in agriculture, connection communities from across the country with the Queer Farmer Network and Queer Farmer Convergence. Hannah talks on this episode about the need to find people should could relate to, leading her to starting the instagram account @queerdirt – which lead to an annual gathering on the farm in Iowa each fall, with an inclusive focus for QTBIPOC (Queer, Trans, Black, Indigenous, People of Color) to help share vision and stories of diversity in farming.

Humble Hands Harvest has been featured for this work in many ways, including an April 2021 feature in YES! Magazine, being awarded the MOSES (now Marbleseed) 2021 Changemaker Award for building Queer Farmer community and her advocacy for beginning farmers’ land access, being featured on MN Public Radio’s “Flyover 2020” series, and more.

Support Humble Hands Harvest by shopping their incredible vegetables at the Decorah Farmers Market, on the Iowa Food Hub, or by donating at their website.

Resources:

https://humblehandsharvest.com/

https://www.instagram.com/queerdirt/

https://www.queerfarmernetwork.org/

🌈 Venmo: @queerfarmerlove

 

Rhymes With Decorah is a companion project of Inspire(d) Media.

Original music heard in this podcast performed and recorded by Nick Zielinski of Decorah. Find him on Instagram @indicative_of_drumming