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Meet Hannah - A queer farmer thriving in rural Iowa
105 Plays12 days ago
Hannah Breckbill joins us for this episode of the Taproot Project to explore the networks that support queer farmers in the rural Midwest. Hannah founded Humble Hands Harvest in Decorah, Iowa, in 2016 – a worker-owned organic farm cooperative that produces about 30 types of vegetables, fruit, nuts and grass-finished lamb on 22 acres. She talks with Kate about what’s helped her thrive in her life as a farmer, why so many queer people want to farm, and the importance of community.
The Taproot Podcast is an initiative of the Midwest Transition to Organic Partnership Program, a project funded by the USDA National Organic Program to support transitioning and organic producers with mentorship and technical assistance and to grow the greater organic community. Learn more at organictransition.org.
You can find new episodes from The Taproot Project wherever you get your podcasts.
Guest Bio
Hannah Breckbill (she/they) loves to show up, to go deep, and to channel the power of relationships into right-sized action. She dedicates her community involvement to developing ever-better alternatives to conventional systems. She is a worker-owner at Humble Hands Harvest, a diversified direct-market farm in rural northeast Iowa, and is grateful for rain.
Helpful Links
- Humble Hands Harvest
- Queer Farmer Network
- Wildcrafting Our Queerness Project: Metronormativity blog
- Greater Minnesota Two-Spirit & LGBTQIA+ History Map
- Surveying queer farmers: How heteropatriarchy affects farm viability and farmer well-being in U.S. agriculture
- Mennonite Church USA
- Transition to Organic Partnership Program (TOPP)
Credits
Music for this episode includes Chasin It by Jason Shaw, Tunez by HoliznaCC0, and Ghost Solos by Lucas Gonze– all from the Free music Archive.
Hosted and produced by Kate Cowie-Haskell.
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to Land Projects and Personal Path-Making
00:00:00
Speaker
I think there's something um about farming, about establishing a land project that's very much about like making one's own path. Like if you're part of a land project, you get to create what those norms are that you're you actually want to abide by or you actually want to be part of.
00:00:26
Speaker
Welcome to the Taproot Project, where stories from changemakers in Midwestern agriculture help us imagine the future of food together. Today, i am so honored to share the wisdom of Hannah Breckbill of Humble Hands Harvest in Decorah, Iowa.
Meet Hannah Breckbill: A Queer Farmer's Journey
00:00:44
Speaker
Hannah is queer, a co-owner of a farm cooperative, a Mennonite, and a musician. And I originally met her in the summer of 2024 and was so grateful to reconnect with her for this conversation.
00:00:57
Speaker
We talk about the values that guide her and the networks of past and present that support their work as a queer farmer in a rural area. The Taproot Project is an initiative of the Midwest Transition to Organic Partnership Program, a project funded by the USDA National Organic Program to support transitioning and organic producers with mentorship and technical assistance and to grow the greater organic community.
00:01:25
Speaker
Learn more at organictransition.org.
00:01:36
Speaker
My name is Hannah Breckbill and I am a farmer with Humble Hands Harvest, um, here in Decorah, Iowa, um, the Northeast corner of Iowa driftless region. Um, I landed here as a first generation farmer. I was not expecting to become a farmer. Um, and a few more things about me include that I am queer. i am a Mennonite. I am a musician.
00:02:01
Speaker
And, um, Yeah. Yeah. That's where I'm at. Yeah.
Cooperative Farming and Transition from Academia
00:02:06
Speaker
Oh, thank you for that. And for bringing in those um different parts of your identity too. I am really excited to dig into all of those and what they all mean for you in, especially in the context of your farm. And you said you're a farmer with, but yeah humble hands harvest is your business. It's something that you've started.
00:02:24
Speaker
um and is it something that you are running with other people with a partner right now? Yeah, yeah. So I co-own the farm with another person, which is why I say I'm a farmer with Humble Hands Harvest. We are, we're actually kind of organized as a worker owned cooperative. So the idea is that we'll add more people to our business over time. um And yeah, so i try to avoid saying i own Humble Hands Harvest.
00:02:51
Speaker
I am Humble Hands Harvest. Yeah. Yeah. And um how did you, you never expected to get into farming. How did it happen?
Activism in College and Farming as Activism
00:03:00
Speaker
Yeah, I am a child of academics, so I expected to become an academic because that is the world that I knew.
00:03:09
Speaker
um And I went to a fancy liberal arts college and i was a math major. Whoa.
00:03:17
Speaker
And about halfway through college, I was like doing the math thing and um and doing well at it. um But I was kind of a little bit disillusioned in that I i really wished for my work to be more connected to people and and less abstract.
00:03:41
Speaker
Um, and so that kind of led me to looking around at various kind of activist things that were happening in college on campus at the time, um, which included stuff about Palestine, um included stuff about, um, gender, um,
00:04:05
Speaker
and also included food at the time. um Local food was a big thing on um on college campuses in in the late aughts.
00:04:18
Speaker
um And so, yeah, yeah and so I kind of dabbled in all of those things, but um but out of college, I got an internship on a farm um in Texas, happened to be,
00:04:32
Speaker
And I started farming and then kept going. um It felt really good. There's what I was saying to myself at the time is there's land everywhere. People need to eat everywhere. Like,
00:04:44
Speaker
I can grow food anywhere. I can, this is a, this is a skill that is useful. And so, um yeah. And then I, I landed in Decora because my girlfriend, my college girlfriend got a job at Seat Savers Exchange, which is here.
00:05:02
Speaker
um And so I followed her here, got a job on a different vegetable farm. And then after a couple of years of farming there, i was able to start my own um business farm business on rented land.
00:05:16
Speaker
So that's what I did. Yeah.
Sustainable Practices and Farm Operations
00:05:19
Speaker
Wow. I, it's funny hearing you say that you were looking for something more, uh, people oriented because I, I don't know that farming is usually has the, is associated with being a very people's skill job, but the the little I know about you is that has been a really big part of your farming journey. Even just what you mentioned about having, um, a setup, like a work for a worker owned co-op. And I'd love to hear more about how you see people as being a part of your, your work.
00:05:47
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, i don't necessarily think of my job as a social job, but i I think that food is really important to people and it is very unabstract. And so i can see myself kind of in a web of connection as I farm, um which feels really important to me in my to make my work meaningful, feel meaningful to me.
00:06:12
Speaker
um But I do see farming definitely, at least the way I do it, as an activist endeavor. um and And that has been a big orientation um for me during my farming career. I farm not necessarily because farming is the exact thing that farming is like the exact thing that i really want to do.
00:06:42
Speaker
And it's more, i farm because I believe that farming is necessary. And I have, I've fallen into the right circumstances to be able to do it. And so I i really am going to do that as my contribution to the world.
00:06:57
Speaker
Yeah. Can you um tell us about your farm? Yeah, absolutely. So um our farm is 22 acres um on the end of a dead end road. And um we have two acres in in vegetable production, annual vegetables um that we direct market um through a CSA and at farmer's market.
00:07:23
Speaker
um And we have some relationships with farmers. with the Iowa Food Hub, for example, which can take our food to schools and things like that. So that's also really good when we have more of a wholesale quantity of of things.
00:07:39
Speaker
um And we're starting to really get into vegetable seed production. So we have various seed contracts with different companies. So we're growing ah few different varieties of tomatoes for seed, for example. So we get to squish those up um and extract the seed.
00:07:59
Speaker
um And then also the rest of the farm. um ah So only two acres are in vegetables on this 22 acre farm and the rest of it, we graze a flock of sheep through um basically the whole thing um and rotationally. So they move every day to a new spot.
00:08:18
Speaker
And we also have been planting as many trees as we can. So the land we're on was ah cornfield for decades. um And when we accessed it, or I guess three years before we accessed it, it became a hayfield.
00:08:35
Speaker
um And then since then, we've just been planting as many perennials as we can and putting it as diverse as we can. And it's been making a huge difference in just like the the bird life that's here.
00:08:50
Speaker
And um yeah, that kind of thing. It feels really good to be. to be kind of a haven for diversity. yeah Yeah, I was fortunate to be able to see your farm last summer and it was such a strong experience of arriving at your place because you know this is my first time ever being in Iowa um and the Driftless region for folks who are listening is you know a little bit more hilly than other areas.
00:09:15
Speaker
And I like turned up your street and found there it was like a tunnel of trees, which was kind of unexpected. And I was going downhill, downhill, and then kind of raised up out of the hill um um onto kind of this open area overlooking your your farm, on your land on both sides of the road and everything was golden and it did feel exactly like a haven. I was like,
Metronormativity and Queer Identity in Rural Areas
00:09:41
Speaker
how did I get here? What portal did I just pass through?
00:09:45
Speaker
um but yeah, it it was very it was very tangible, the amount of um yeah life that was happening there. yeah. I actually think I want to go to kind of an academic note. um When I was preparing for this episode, I was doing some reading and ah came across this term called metronormativity.
00:10:07
Speaker
You're nodding like you've heard of it. um I'm going to read a little bit ah just to give folks some context. This is from a blog post in a blog called Wild Crafting Our Queerness Project by Maxwell Clough.
00:10:20
Speaker
And ah here's the quote. So in his book, In a Queer Time and Place, cultural theorist Jack Halbertstum uses the term metronormativity to describe this culturally dominant understanding that the queer and the rural are incompatible.
00:10:38
Speaker
Metronormative narratives treat rural regions as a spatial closet out of which LBTQ plus people must emerge by moving to the city and realizing the full expression of the sexual self.
00:10:51
Speaker
If queer people exist in a rural area, they're either in hiding, out, but only suffering due to a multitude of social and political factors, or simply delusional and inauthentically queer. And I think part of the reason I was so excited to speak with you is um that the way...
00:11:11
Speaker
uh, you just, you really stand in the face of, of this idea of metronormativity and that the the rural and the queer are incompatible. And I'd love to hear your responses to just that little, little blurb I read.
00:11:23
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, when I first moved here, um, well, I was with a ah partner at the time. And so, um So there wasn't an option of being closeted. um but when I first moved here, yeah, ah basically this place was very welcoming to me. Iowa had recently like um gone through this Supreme Court situation, which made gay marriage legal, which was, we were like the only place maybe-ish in the country at the time that had like legal gay marriage.
00:11:58
Speaker
Just a quick note on that. Iowa was actually the third state in the country to legalize gay marriage. Gay marriage was first legalized in Massachusetts in 2004, in Connecticut in 2008, and then in Iowa in 2009.
00:12:14
Speaker
And the people in Decorah, there had been a group of people who made a ah kind of... tourism website called Welcome in Decorah, where you could have your destination gay wedding in Decorah, Iowa, because there were musicians here, there were musicians ready to, you know, whatever.
00:12:32
Speaker
um and And so that, I i arrived in Decorah a few years after that. and um ah And so everyone in Decorah was just so excited about gay people and especially gay people getting married.
00:12:48
Speaker
Wow. Which was really funny. My girlfriend and I at the time were like, we are... Like, stop telling us to get married.
00:12:59
Speaker
Everyone wants to go to the wedding.
00:13:02
Speaker
oh but ah But so that was really interesting. It was a very welcoming place. But also, like, no one, hardly anyone was actually queer. Everyone was just like wanting to well welcome queer people.
00:13:15
Speaker
And meanwhile, people in my best friends from college, for example, were in cities. One was in New York, one was in um Boston. And so their experience of queerness, their experience of life is like, I don't have to hang out with anyone who isn't queer.
00:13:29
Speaker
like me um And so that was a really notable thing is like my social relationships were with almost entirely straight people in a local context.
00:13:43
Speaker
And, um, and that was just very like culture shocky for my, um, queer friends who visited from cities. Um, But i didn't I didn't feel like it was problematic at all.
00:13:57
Speaker
And when when my girlfriend and I broke up, i did have I had this realization of like, oh, no one's going to know that I'm queer unless I talk about it.
00:14:08
Speaker
And so and so i That felt important to me. And so i talked about it. um And I just like that. I brought it up. And if someone was knowing who I was, they were going to know that I was queer.
00:14:24
Speaker
ah And um so, yeah, i I didn't stay in the closet. um When I first started my farm, I was in a slightly different community. I was renting land in southeastern Minnesota. And it didn't.
00:14:40
Speaker
really have an opportunity to come up in conversation there. um and um And I think as like that was a major reason why I left that that very good rental situation to move back to Decorah because i my whole self was welcome here and and was known here.
00:15:04
Speaker
um Yeah, but I think what I love about rural places is is that idea of being known um and and about and of knowing others, you know? um Like, you're not anonymous in a rural place, and I think that's a really um beautiful thing.
00:15:29
Speaker
And also... and it is also um It does like create some like but some different considerations from the way you would might behave if you're if you are anonymous, like you have to care about people and you have to care a little bit, at least about what they think.
00:15:53
Speaker
um And. um Yeah, and I think that's. um It's just kind of an interesting dynamic and it's fun to be in that.
00:16:05
Speaker
Yeah. I feel I, yeah, recently in a rural place myself and um already feeling that cultural difference of being in, you know, Minneapolis where i could just hang out with queer people.
00:16:17
Speaker
And actually um in South Minneapolis, it kind of felt like it happened whether or not it was choosing that. and And now, I'm in a place where it's like the relationships are a lot more enmeshed.
00:16:29
Speaker
what yeah What are some of the the resources and the networks that have allowed you to feel established in this community and and established as a farmer? sir Yeah, I mean, I...
00:16:46
Speaker
i um In my beginning farmer, I was super supported by like various ag nonprofits um supporting me with business know-how. So the Land Stewardship Project in Minnesota, Practical Farmers of Iowa here.
00:17:03
Speaker
So yeah, those have been really super valuable um to be engaged with for me. um And then more kind of hyper locally, just like the community here of um a lot of a lot of people moved here in the like 70s and 80s kind of the homesteading movement um and, you know, established the food co-op here and established the farmer's market.
00:17:31
Speaker
um So we're having like all of these 50 year anniversaries around now um of of of um Yeah, so this this community of people um really made kind of the infrastructure of community that I walked into as a young person 15 years ago.
The Queer Farmer Convergence
00:17:54
Speaker
Yeah, I feel like that has been key and and also... um kind of I want to contribute to that or I want to keep building that infrastructure of community and and infrastructure of belonging of of bringing people in and saying yeah you can have a place here like we'll help you yes great segue to the queer farmer convergence um what is that how'd that come about
00:18:25
Speaker
Yeah, so the Queer Farmer Convergence started because I was crying on the phone to a friend about being lonely.
00:18:37
Speaker
And this friend said, oh Yeah, you need to be around other queer people who are also rural people. Like, that's what you need. We need to find those people for you.
00:18:50
Speaker
And the way we're going to do that is we're going to make an Instagram account and we're going to make you into a queer farmer celebrity. And then we're going to tell everyone to come to your farm for a queer farmer convention. Wow.
00:19:03
Speaker
And I was like, I was not on Instagram. I like barely even knew what Instagram was at the time. And I was like, okay, whatever. ah and they were like, great, I'll do it. ah Do you self-identify now as a queer farmer celebrity?
00:19:17
Speaker
um I have gone through that phase and I'm a little bit over it at this point. okay oh But yeah, no, they they made this Instagram account. They got people all pumped up about about me in particular as a queer farmer, but then also just like connected a bunch of queer farmers. And then, um yeah, 2018 was the first queer farmer convergence we hosted it in the fall. We spent um So it's it's two nights of camping on the farm and we source um catered food um for everybody and we kind of crowdsource workshops and and discussion topics for the group to have. and Can you give us an example of a workshop or discussion topics?
00:20:10
Speaker
Yeah, I think the first year we had a workshop about... or a discussion about farm labor, um like being a worker on farms and what that's like. And then we also talked about people have done seed saving workshops, people have led guided meditations, people have... um uh, done, um, brought materials for printmaking.
00:20:39
Speaker
Um, one year we, we kind of collaboratively painted a mural on our walk-in cooler, um, uh, with, with the QFC attendees. Really great. Yeah.
00:20:51
Speaker
Yeah. And it's happened every year since then. Um, we skipped 2020 and we, um, and u he um And last year in 2024, we didn't host one on at Humble Hands Harvest, but the community, the network, the Queer Farmer Network has expanded.
00:21:11
Speaker
And so three different um Queer Farmer convergences were held last year. And I didn't get a chance to go to any of them, but that's okay. um And I do intend to host one this year. I'm just kind of late to the game in the planning stages of it.
00:21:28
Speaker
Yeah. Wow. So it's really, yeah, it's really expanded and, um, That's pretty cool to hear how, yeah, your desire to see yourself in a network has been happening, has happened and, and the queer and out of the queer farmer convergence came the queer farmer network, um which I can, I'll share some information about that in the show notes. Um, but yeah, do you, what, what is the queer farmer network up to, up to now and why does it exist?
00:22:02
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, it became really clear as we were kind of um promoting the queer farmer convergences that there was a real hunger among queer farmer types for this kind of community.
00:22:18
Speaker
um and And honestly, there's a lot of expectation, too. Like, like, when When our farm started identifying as a queer farm, um people put a lot of different ideas onto what that might mean.
00:22:34
Speaker
um So it turns out that you can't escape capitalism just by calling yourself a queer farm. for example oh So anyway, oh yeah, so the Queer Farmer Network is is just, all it is essentially is a listserv of probably about 2000 people um have joined that listserv and communicated about very various events across the country.
00:23:05
Speaker
yeah, and um And then there's also a kind of a website now, queerfarmernetwork.org, and it hosts a directory of queer farms, um self-identified queer farms. And um I think it has had a job board. I don't know how active that is now.
00:23:26
Speaker
So just trying to connect people, trying to make sure, yeah people have a landing place to become connected to him more queer farmers.
Queer Individuals in Farming: Challenges and Aspirations
00:23:36
Speaker
Yeah. Mm-hmm.
00:23:39
Speaker
What do you think it, what is it about queers and farming?
00:23:46
Speaker
I mean, I, like I come from my own bubble, I guess, of, of, um, queers formerly just urban queers. And i just, everyone, everyone had a vision, a dream, not everyone shout out to the people who just know they love the city life, but, um, a lot of people had the dream of establishing some version of a cooperatively run land project.
00:24:06
Speaker
And, um, yeah, dreamed of of being in a rural place and being connected the land in that way. And I have my own thoughts, but what do you why do you think that is such a like ah common theme among queers and has been, you know even back to the Land Dyke movements of the nineteen eighty s um What's up with that?
00:24:28
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, I'll have some initial thoughts include that like being queer is... um yeah, it's ah it's a lot about not...
00:24:43
Speaker
not um complying with various norms. Right. And, um, because of that, we kind of have to make our own paths.
00:24:57
Speaker
Um, and I think there's something, um about farming, about establishing a land project. That's very much about like making one's own path and like really, um, um,
00:25:12
Speaker
Yeah. World building. Right. Yeah. so the. And and and we get to create like if you're part of a land project, you get to create what those norms are that you're you actually want to abide by or you actually want to be part of.
00:25:30
Speaker
And so I think that's a ah big part of of that that kind of dream. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. That, um, world building that's, that really resonates. I think that that totally captures some of the drive for that sort of, yeah, that dream, that vision that I've heard so many people in my life share.
00:25:53
Speaker
Um, yeah, what, um, getting into, you know, the, you've, you've talked about how welcoming the community has been in Decorah and, um,
00:26:09
Speaker
I don't know how much you'll be able to speak to this or not, but um when those dreams hit reality, what do you see either around you or from your own experience are the um the roadblocks to, you know, land access for for queer folks?
00:26:28
Speaker
um You know, things like health insurance or just like the very logistical pieces that support a life. um Right. Are there specific ways that you think that queer folks in rural spaces um don't have access to resources they need? um Honestly, I don't know if there's anything that I would point out as specific to queer people. That's a challenge.
00:26:58
Speaker
I think just specific to beginning farmers, like the price of land is Absurd to think about. Like when you're a beginning farmer in your 20s, imagining $5,000 acre or $10,000 an acre or $15,000 an acre absurd. It doesn't make any sense. Like how could you possibly do And could bank possibly...
00:27:15
Speaker
absurd it doesn't make any sense like how how could you possibly view that and how could bank possibly um, want to finance that if farming, you make $3 at a time by selling your items, you know, it's like, it just doesn't make any sense.
00:27:33
Speaker
Um, and so, um, yeah, so I feel like really lucky that I've somehow made my way through that. And now, um, I can even imagine like, oh yeah, $10,000 an acre. Okay. Yeah. Like,
00:27:49
Speaker
that can be figured out, you know? And that's a really funny transition for me to, to see myself going from that 20 something person who couldn't imagine that to me now, who, uh, doesn't necessarily balk at these like insane capitalist things.
00:28:08
Speaker
Um, um, yeah. Um,
00:28:16
Speaker
Yeah, I don't know. It's just ah it's just a big thing. And but the way I was able to make it through it was that like my i was embedded I got embedded enough in the community and especially in the community of like older people who like really care about um homesteading and and good food and um not polluting our air and water with confinement operations. Yeah.
00:28:44
Speaker
Um, so they saw me as a beginning farmer who really wanted to do the work and really wanted to grow food, um, feed my community with it. Um, and they said, okay, like you want to do this and we will help you do it.
00:29:01
Speaker
And so there were people who, um, gave me lots of money or, or, or money in the form of land um to be able to, um to be able to make it go of it.
00:29:15
Speaker
um And yeah. And so now the question is like, for me personally is like, how can I pass that, that um gift on and like really keep developing um support systems for people who want to do this work? Because I think,
00:29:34
Speaker
In my opinion, ah really shouldn't fall to farmers to figure out how to fund our entire local food system, it should fall communities, right?
00:29:46
Speaker
um Wow. When you put it like that. yeah Yeah. I did a little more digging into the question of what roadblocks queer farmers specifically encounter.
00:29:59
Speaker
And it turns out there's not much data on the topic.
Faith, Farming, and World-Building
00:30:03
Speaker
The USDA census of agriculture is currently the most comprehensive database of U.S. agriculture, and it's used to guide policymaking.
00:30:13
Speaker
But historically, it has limited gender options to male and female and has not included any questions about sexual orientation. I did find one study published in the Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development in 2023 that surveyed queer farmers in an attempt to fill this data gap.
00:30:35
Speaker
One of the main questions of that study was what barriers to farm viability and farmer well-being do queer farmers report? The most highly reported barrier to well-being and farm viability at 72% of respondents was anticipated discrimination.
00:30:55
Speaker
So that's fear of discrimination from service providers, community members, loan officers, etc. that might actually prevent a farmer from even pursuing opportunities.
00:31:08
Speaker
And the second most highly reported barrier, at 36% of respondents, was social isolation. On the flip side, respondents reported that LGBTQIA plus farm mentors were the most helpful factor in their success, and the study specifically mentions the Queer Farmer Network here.
00:31:30
Speaker
That study is linked in the show notes.
00:31:34
Speaker
I want to go back to a world building. And another part of your identity that you mentioned is that you're Mennonite. And, you know, you and I connected initially kind of because we were both involved with a similar faith community, the Quakers.
00:31:47
Speaker
um But I'm drawn to talking about this just because it feels like another kind of piece of the identities that you hold that feel like they, you know, should be in conflict with each other, um that like, queer, rural, and, you know, part of, of the Christian community or part of the faith community at all, just like, don't mesh and, um and how, how is your connection to your faith, part of the way you farm and part of the way that you are queer?
00:32:20
Speaker
Yeah. Well, yeah, that's a great question and a fun one. um
00:32:28
Speaker
So my experience of being Mennonite, Mennonites are like. I think of them as like the radical left wing of the reformation um in like Switzerland, in Germany in the 1500s.
00:32:43
Speaker
um And so they were the people who said, who were, they were kind of like the initial Anabaptists were kind of the, um like they were academics. They were like in the in the intellectual circles.
00:32:57
Speaker
Okay, if you're like me, you might be new to the word Anabaptist and a little fuzzy on what Mennonites actually are. So here's just a really quick primer paraphrased from the Mennonite Church USA.
00:33:12
Speaker
Mennonites are Anabaptists, which is a faith stream within Christianity that started forming between amid fifteen hundreds and sixteen hundreds Anabaptists are neither Catholic nor Protestant, although they do share some beliefs of both.
00:33:27
Speaker
And Mennonites specifically have some core tenets that include a commitment to pacifism, belief in the separation of church and state, and rejection of infant baptism, preferring to baptize adults when they can actually choose the church.
00:33:45
Speaker
And ah quick necessary note, Mennonites and Amish are not the same. They share the same historical roots and they agree on some basic Christian doctrine, but they have different interpretations about how to live out their faith practices with Amish communities generally embracing more of a separatist lifestyle.
00:34:03
Speaker
So Martin Luther is doing these reforms of the Catholic Church. but like he's not doing nearly enough. And actually church shouldn't be connected to like statehood or nationality at all.
00:34:17
Speaker
um Church is entirely separate. We belong to God's kingdom and we don't actually obey like earthly rulers or states or anything like that. So that's why Mennonites are pacifists is not because not centrally because like they don't want to hurt people, but actually because they don't want to obey states or do the bidding of like rulers, um which is really interesting. yeah oh
00:34:48
Speaker
And um so anyway, ah being Mennonite for me,
00:34:58
Speaker
Yeah, I also had a ah pastor when I was growing up, um who talked about how like Christianity went wrong, as soon as it became a state religion, which was in the 300s, when Rome adopted it as a state religion. Wow.
00:35:14
Speaker
So um ah Yeah. So my relationship to Christianity is like pretty different than a lot of people's relationship to Christianity.
00:35:26
Speaker
Um, because yeah, um, I think of it as an anti-state proposition and I think of it as, uh, community based thing. Like Mennonites, um, make decisions as a community.
00:35:43
Speaker
Um, ah Traditionally, um I'm not really part of a Mennonite church right now because I go to a Quaker meeting. That's what my option is here. um So this is kind of i'm I'm speaking a little bit in the abstract, but it it comes from.
00:35:59
Speaker
Yeah, i I think it informs the way I think about the way i move in the world is like um I'm less, much less concerned about like law, law and order and much more concerned about kind of integrity and like what what I'm headed toward um the world that I'm trying to build. Right.
00:36:27
Speaker
Um, and, um, and that world like in, in like Mennonite speak or whatever would be God's kingdom or like, um, on earth as it is in heaven. Right.
00:36:39
Speaker
Um, and yeah. And like farming is such a beautiful way to connect to,
00:36:51
Speaker
ah like the possibility of heaven, you know, or the possibility of God's kingdom. yeah Um, because, yeah, because it's just so like rich, um, in, in,
00:37:08
Speaker
ah I mean, mostly I'm thinking about the birds and the insects and the native plants on my farm. right And less about like the drudgery labor that I do in the vegetable field. It all fits together somehow.
00:37:22
Speaker
Yeah. And that... um i love I mean, that really clicked into place for me when you shared that little bit of history about like, yeah, the Anabaptists and and um separation from from the state. And it feels like, you know, maybe part of the opportunity of farming for, you know, Mennonites, for also queers, the intersection is in that space of being able to have agency over creating quote like heaven on earth or the conditions that like we might associate with something that is like divine or right or right relationship whatever you know folks listening yeah beloved community whatever your preferred term is um
00:38:10
Speaker
That, yeah, um a lot of the opportunity there is in the way that you decide to relate to other people and to the land, which I think is like also a big part of making our way in
Advice for Aspiring Queer Farmers
00:38:25
Speaker
the world as queer people. Totally.
00:38:26
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Cool. Wow. Thanks for that little dive into theology. um So ah yeah you're you're kind of positioning yourself as a as a ah queer farming elder. um So I'm sure you get questions like this a lot, but what What do you recommend to somebody who's you know still in that dreaming place of um maybe wanting to have a land project, work a farm?
00:39:01
Speaker
What advice do you have? Where do you tell people to go and what do you tell them to think about? Yeah. um
00:39:08
Speaker
So I do enjoy like the technical aspects of farming, but that is... not what I think people need to learn first or like that comes along with the whole thing.
00:39:22
Speaker
But I think what people like, what really benefits, um, beginning farmers, um, is, is just being connected two um, to their communities and to people, um, who are doing the work.
00:39:40
Speaker
Um, And yeah, so I always recommend like definitely work on farms for a few years before you start your own project.
00:39:53
Speaker
Um, you know, you can get paid ah little bit, probably not as much as your city job, but you can get paid and you can learn. And um if you know where you want to farm and the communities that you want to farm in, then then you can really dig dig down deep.
00:40:13
Speaker
And if you happen to like get land or start being in a place, um, and, and don't know the community yet, like you need to meet those people and you need to meet them like openly.
00:40:26
Speaker
I think a ah struggle that a lot of queer people have is, um, is, you know, there's, there's that like purity culture thing that happens and like,
00:40:38
Speaker
ah some queer people coming into rural spaces are, are just like, have determined that they're going to be angry at the people who don't get it or don't get them.
00:40:50
Speaker
yeah And that's not, that's not the stance to have. yeah I don't think if you're going to be happy in a rural place, um like you need to, you need to meet people halfway.
00:41:03
Speaker
um and and kind of try ah yeah engage on a kind of good faith um level. Like not everyone knows everything.
00:41:15
Speaker
ah Yeah. Thank you so much, Hannah, for um yeah for speaking with me today and and for sharing a little bit of the wisdom that you've gleaned from the work that you do.
00:41:28
Speaker
um How can people follow what you're up to? Yeah, I'm not like super active on social media, but you can find um Humble Hands Harvest on and online, humblehandsharvest.com. And other than that, yeah, check out the Queer Farmer Network too um ah and try to get connected. And I'm always happy to have visitors and to talk to people. So um reach out if you want to.
00:42:07
Speaker
Many, many,
Historical Account and Acknowledgements
00:42:08
Speaker
many thanks to Hannah for sharing their experience and her whole self with us. You can learn more about Humble Hands Harvest at humblehandsharvest.com.
00:42:21
Speaker
And if you're a queer farmer or simply curious, definitely check QueerFarmerNetwork.org. It's one way to access a network of peer support the same way that peer networks have supported rural queers for years.
00:42:37
Speaker
And another resource for farmers who are looking for community, queer or not, organic or not, are the farmer circles hosted by the Organic Farmers Association. And you can learn more about those ongoing circles at the link in the show notes.
00:42:56
Speaker
Before we close, I want to share just a little history snack for you. And in celebration of the queer people who have insisted on farming across time, even at personal risk.
00:43:10
Speaker
The following is an article published in the Princeton Union newspaper in Princeton, Minnesota, in 1890. She was
00:43:29
Speaker
she was a man Early in the harvest, a comely young man applied for and secured work on the farm of Henry Stocking, near this village. He seemed to be a very industrious fellow, but was rather shy of his fellow workmen.
00:43:42
Speaker
This was attributed to the fact that they often chafed him on the size of his feet and hands, which were small, and the appearance of his form, which they claimed resembled a female's. Owing to the number of hands employed, this young man and another slept in the barn.
00:43:57
Speaker
Among other young men employed was one Jake Nellison. A few nights since, Jake came to the village and was detained so long that when he returned home, he concluded not to disturb the people in the house, but went to the barn instead.
00:44:10
Speaker
Just about daybreak, as the workmen were preparing for their early breakfast, They were startled by a series of yells, and Jake came bounding towards the house, with his hair standing on and his eyes bursting from their sockets.
00:44:22
Speaker
As he reached the house, he managed to say, He's a woman! Such was the case, and after order was restored somewhat, Mr. Stocking interviewed the she, and paying him off, he took his departure.
00:44:36
Speaker
But for Jake's inopportune discovery, she might have remained a he until the close of the harvest.
00:44:55
Speaker
You all should see the use of quotations around the pronouns in that article. Wow. I was really moved when I read this the first time, and since then I've really enjoyed imagining the full and complicated and clearly very creative person who's hidden between the lines of this history.
00:45:19
Speaker
Thank you to the Minnesota Historical Society for including that newspaper clipping in their Greater Minnesota Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA history map. Thank you to Hannah Breckbill for her time. Thank you also to Maxwell Tipple Clough for permission to read from their blog post on metronormativity, and to Paul Stucker for reading the newspaper article.
00:45:42
Speaker
Music for this episode includes Chasin' It by Jason Shaw, tunes by Holizna CC0, and ghost solos by Lucas Gonza, all from the Free Music Archive.
00:45:54
Speaker
The Taproot Project is produced by me, Kate Cowie-Haskell. This podcast is an initiative of the Midwest Transition to Organic Partnership Program, a project funded by the USDA National Organic Program to support transitioning and organic producers with mentorship and technical assistance and to grow the greater organic community.
00:46:17
Speaker
You can learn more at organictransition.org.