Hands in the Soil

Foundations in Land Stewardship, the three-month farm school program I co-hosted with Cat Henning, just wrapped its inaugural cohort on August 1st. Though it’s impossible to fully capture the magic that unfolded throughout this program, this episode is my attempt to put words to what happened - for myself, for anyone who's been curious about the program, and for anyone who might want to create something like it in their own community.

Farm school went deep. Yes, we explored soil science and market streams and the mechanics of a viable farm business, but at the core of it, it was also necessary to explore identity, inner work, relationships, and the revelation that a farm is always a reflection of the person tending it. I learned a lot, and I'm excited to share some of that with you in this episode today.

Tune in to learn more about:

• Why the program was built around farmer-teachers
• How every farm is completely different, and every farm is a reflection of the person running it
• The importance of knowing your strengths, owning your weaknesses, and building something that actually works for who you are
• The power of bringing people onto farms that are alive, cared for, and stewarded with intention, and why that experience is healing in ways people don't expect
• What it means to be a positive disturbance in a landscape, and how that shifts your whole orientation to the natural world
• Why I believe you can't bring a big dream to life without first facing the parts of yourself that say it isn't possible
• Why community is both the answer to food system change and the thing food most naturally creates

Sign Up for Farm School 2027
If you're interested in being part of the next cohort of Foundations in Land Stewardship, you can sign up to be notified when enrollment opens: www.handsinthesoil.farm/farmschool 

Connect with Hannah: 

Instagram: ⁠@hannahkeitel

In this episode of Hands in the Soil, we venture into new waters and explore the seafood industry. Our guest is Emily Soye Miller, seafood system educator, commercial fisheries consultant, and the managing force behind Fishful Future, a San Diego-based initiative for greater consumer awareness of local seafood that she ran from 2021 through 2025. Emily recently co-curated San Diego Seafood: Then & Now, a community cookbook that traces the history and future of San Diego's seafood culture.

Emily grew up recreationally fishing with her father in Southern California, processing squid bait at the kitchen table with her Korean immigrant mother, and navigating the early tension of what counts as "normal" food and for whom. That upbringing gave way to an ecology degree, a stint at a fisheries processor in Kodiak, Alaska, six years as a commercial fisheries observer on boats ranging from single-day trips to month-long offshore voyages, and eventually, a deep commitment to making local seafood legible, accessible, and culturally meaningful to everyday people.

Tune in to learn more about:

• San Diego's history as the tuna capital of the world, and how dramatically things have changed since the post-WWII era
• The Magnuson-Stevens Act and how US fisheries became some of the most well-managed in the world, and why that matters when people claim all commercial fishing is inherently harmful
• The "graying of the fleet": why commercial fishing communities are aging out, shrinking, and struggling to attract the next generation
• Why imports make it nearly impossible for small-scale artisanal US fishers to compete on price, and what that means for the future of local seafood
• The seafood system as a "mysterious black box" and why most people have far less understanding of it than they do of agriculture

• What responsible seafood consumerism actually looks like in San Diego

• The gentrification of wild seafood, and why Emily refuses to call it a win if local seafood only ends up on luxury menus
• How stewardship of the ocean arises naturally from place-based diets

Connect with Emily: 

Website: fishfulfuture.com 

Instagram: @fishfulfuture 

TikTok: @fishful.future

Connect with Hannah: 

Instagram: @hannahkeitel

We’re back with a solo episode, because I couldn’t resist the topic.  A Cyclospora parasite outbreak linked to iceberg lettuce is making headlines across the US, and while the CDC's warnings have left a lot of people wondering whether they can safely eat a salad, I want to set the record straight: this moment is less about contaminated lettuce and more about what happens when 40% of a country's salad comes from one company.

This is a short episode where I break down exactly how a parasite ends up on your lettuce, why consolidation makes outbreaks like this inevitable, and what you can actually do (starting today!) to step out of the most fragile parts of the food system.

Tune in to learn more about:

• What Cyclospora is, how it spreads, and how a parasite that can only be transmitted through human feces ended up on grocery store lettuce
• Why not all produce is affected, and why the blanket fear of fresh fruits and vegetables is misinformation 
• Who Taylor Farms is: over 40% of all salad kits sold in American grocery stores, plus ownership of Earthbound Organics, plus major growing and processing operations in Mexico and Canada
• Why the scale that makes companies like Taylor Farms profitable is the exact same scale that makes outbreaks like this inevitable
• The COVID parallel with distribution system failures and general systemic fragility. 
• Why small farms are structurally less likely to cause this kind of widespread harm, and more likely to be able to answer your questions directly
• What food sovereignty actually looks like in practice: knowing your farmer, asking questions, growing something yourself if you can

Connect with Hannah:

• Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@hannahkeitel ⁠⁠⁠

In this episode of Hands in the Soil, we’re joined by four guests - Ian and Kristina, co-founders and co-executive directors of The Farmers Land Trust, and Julian and Alita, the visionaries behind the Earthen Heart Farmland Commons in Bangor, Michigan - to talk about a hopeful and replicable model in food systems work happening right now.

The conversation that unfolds in this episode is a story about what becomes possible when land is decommodified, when ownership is reimagined as stewardship, and when the right people find each other at the right moment. Julian donated his 19.9-acre Bangor farm, built over 14 years of food forests, medicinal plants, and regenerative land practices, into the Farmers Land Trust, where it became the founding property of the Earthen Heart Farmland Commons. Alita Kelly, founder of Jade Rabbit and steward of community food work across West Michigan, received a 99-year lease on that land and a seat in the ownership structure. This conversation is part origin story, part how-it-works, and part invitation to anyone sitting on land, working with land, or dreaming of a different relationship to it.

Tune in to learn more about:

• What The Farmers Land Trust does and how the farmland commons model works, including the 501c25 legal structure that makes it possible

• How farmers who lease land through this model also get a seat in the ownership structure, and why that changes everything
• Julian's 14-year journey as steward of the Earthen Heart property, what he learned, and what guided him toward donating rather than selling
• What it felt like to ask the land for permission, and to receive an answer

• Why healing on this land is inseparable from healing the relationship that communities of color have had with land in America
• The vision for Earthen Heart as a site of communal farming, collective living, a freedom school, and transformation through the seasons
• The honest challenges: finding pro bono legal support, aligning values among farm partners, navigating shared leadership, and building something with no map
• Why land is donated all the time (to universities, municipalities, and conservation trusts) and what it would mean to shift that culture toward working farmland and food sovereignty
• The history of the word "homesteading" and why Julian chooses to use it anyway, and the distinction between farming for sale and farming for use
• Liberty Hyde Bailey, Teddy Roosevelt, the Commission on Rural Life, and the moment over a century ago that set us on the path we're still trying to heal from

Resources Mentioned

• Episode 13: Bringing Hope to the Future of Farmland with Ian McSweeney
• Episode 34: Creating a Farmland Commons with Ian McSweeney
• Episode 48: Solidarity and Community Sufficiency: Land Justice, Food Justice and True Community Empowerment with Kristina Villa et al

• Liberty Hyde Bailey
• The Homestead Act of 1862

Connect + Learn More

• The Farmers Land Trust Website: thefarmerslandtrust.org 
• Earthen Heart Farmland Commons Website: thefarmerslandtrust.org/commons/earthen-heart 
• Earthen Heart Website: earthenheart.com
• Jade Rabbit: jade-rabbit.org

• West Michigan Young Farmers Coalition: youngfarmers.org
• Connect with Hannah on Instagram: @hannahkeitel

In this episode of Hands in the Soil, we sit down with Andrew Flachs, associate professor of anthropology at Purdue University and author of two books that ask some of the most clarifying questions in food systems discourse: Cultivating Knowledge: Biotechnology, Sustainability, and the Human Cost of Cotton Capitalism in India and his most recent, Feeding the World as if People Mattered: How Small Farms Produce Value Beyond Yields. Andrew grew up in a small Pennsylvania town with a grandmother's garden he admittedly didn't love as a kid, and found his way into this work through a chance encounter with urban gardening research, a student meal cooperative, and an advisor who sent him to India at exactly the right moment. Andrew brings the kind of rigor to this conversation that comes from years in the field with farmers across three continents, combined with a willingness to question the assumptions baked into how we talk about food. 

Tune in to learn more about:

• How Andrew went from hating picking beans as a kid to becoming a leading anthropologist of food and agriculture
• Why the fight to prove that small farms can match conventional yields is the wrong fight entirely
• The "iceberg economy" and all the care work, infrastructure, and labor that lies beneath the visible surface of our food system
• What his research across the US Midwest, Bosnia, and South India revealed about what small farming families actually share across different contexts
• The explosion of GM cotton seeds in India, from three brands in 2002 to over a thousand by 2012, and what that did to farmers' knowledge, livelihoods, and mortality rates
• Why farmers on organic cotton programs kept farming even when the economic math didn't add up, and what that reveals about what farming is actually for
• The true costs of "cheap" food: what isn't being counted in environmental degradation, public health, labor exploitation, and soil loss
• Why efficiency is often a trap, and how efficient technologies without systemic change just lead us to do more of the same harmful thing
• How the current Farm Bill debate and the Iran war oil disruptions reveal the fragility of just-in-time global supply chains
• What a resilient food system would require, and what we already know how to do

Books & Resources Mentioned

By Andrew Flachs:

• Feeding the World as if People Mattered: How Small Farms Produce Value Beyond Yields
  (Use code AZFLR for 30% off. If cost is a barrier, email Andrew directly.)
  
• Cultivating Knowledge: Biotechnology, Sustainability, and the Human Cost of Cotton Capitalism in India
  

• Interactive Story Map: Cotton in India
  https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/20f488863e4a41a892f0dd7a346180c0

Referenced in conversation:

• Small Is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered - E.F. Schumacher (1973)
• The Labor of Lunch: Why We Need School Food and How to Get It - Jennifer Gaddis
• Beginning to End Hunger: Food and the Environment in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, and Beyond - Dr. Jahi Chappell
  

Connect with Andrew

• Website: andrewflachs.com
  
• Instagram: @drflachsophone
  
• Email: [email protected]
  
• University of Arizona Press: @azpress on Instagram

Connect with Hannah:

• Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@hannahkeitel ⁠⁠⁠

In this episode of Hands in the Soil, we sit down with Greg Reese, first-generation farmer and farm manager at Fox Point Farms - a working agrihood community in Encinitas, California. Greg didn't grow up on a farm. He grew up in the suburbs, stumbled into organic food through a farm-to-table restaurant job in his mid-twenties, and spent the next decade piecing together an education from backyard gardens, WWOOFing trips to Costa Rica, rainwater harvesting work, school gardens, indigenous land partnerships, and small urban farms. That winding, mentor-rich path eventually led him to the farm he manages now: a two-and-a-half-acre regenerative operation embedded in a 250-home community, with a restaurant, market, brewery, and apothecary all on site.

Tune in to learn more about:

• The moment Greg realized organic food tasted and felt different, and what that curiosity unlocked
• The difference between gardening and farming, and how scale, markets, and business thinking change everything
• What an agrihood is, why the concept resonates deeply, and how Fox Point Farms came to be
• Why cutting out the supply chain middleman is one of the most powerful things a small farmer can do
• The true cost of food: land, labor, water, machinery, government subsidies, and why "cheap" conventional produce is only cheap on the surface
• Why Americans spend less of their income on food than almost any other developed nation, and what that says about our priorities
• The race to the bottom on food prices, and why Greg refuses to participate
• Greg's step-by-step advice for anyone who wants to get started in farming
• How agritourism (farm dinners, animal encounters, U-picks, school visits) is becoming essential to the small farm business model

Connect + Learn More:

Follow Greg’s Instagram: @farmergreg_official

Check out Fox Point Farms: @foxpointfarms

Website: foxpointfarms.com 

Connect with Hannah: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@hannahkeitel ⁠⁠⁠

In this episode of Hands in the Soil, we sit down with Chuck Samuelson, recovering chef, tribal member of the Assiniboine Nation, founder of Kitchens for Good, and founder of his current nonprofit, Heal the Earth. Chuck's path into food systems work started with a question he couldn't stop asking: why does perfectly good food get thrown away while people go hungry? That question followed him out of professional kitchens and restaurants, through decades in food service, into a life where Chuck is now stewarding 43 acres of avocado groves in San Diego while building a regional food hub, an AgTech accelerator, and a co-packing manufacturing facility designed to fill the missing middle of the local food system. 

His work sits at the intersection of food access, farmer support, and community sovereignty, and his vision is as practical as it is bold. In this conversation, we go deep on what it actually means to work on a system rather than just within it. We talk about the difference between charity and sovereignty, the four A's of hunger relief, and why doubling down on the same hunger solutions isn't working. We talk about co-ops, farm stops, and we talk about dreams - the big, hairy, audacious kind - for what the food system here in San Diego could become.

Tune in to learn more about:

• Chuck's journey from dishwasher at 13 to chef, restaurateur, and nonprofit founder
• How watching a grocery store employee discard bruised apples became the seed for Kitchens for Good
• What food insecurity actually means, and why over 800,000 people in San Diego, including more than 200,000 children, are affected by it
• Why Chuck believes charity creates an "unfortunate power dynamic,” and what sovereignty in the food system looks like instead
• The four A's of hunger relief: accessible, affordable, appropriate, and awesome
• How cooperatives changed Chuck's understanding of what a local food economy can look like
• The Adopt an Avocado Tree program - how it started, how it works, and why it's expanding to other farmers and crops
• The role of storytelling and community in small farm success
• Chuck's Big Hairy Audacious Dream for San Diego's food future, and what he's asking each of us to do right now

Connect + Learn More:

Chuck Samuelson / Heal the Earth: healtheearth.info

Instagram: @healtheearthfarm 

Kitchens for Good: kitchensforgood.org

Connect with Hannah: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@hannahkeitel ⁠⁠⁠

In this episode of Hands in the Soil, we sit down with Hamid Pezeshkian, founder of FlameTree Farms, to explore what it looks like to find your way back to the land - sometimes unexpectedly. Hamid didn’t grow up in agriculture, but his earliest and most vivid childhood memories were rooted in time spent in nature, surrounded by fruit trees and family. Years later, after a career in the corporate world, he found himself called to a small orchard in San Diego, a place that would ultimately reshape his relationship with work, creativity, and life itself.

In this conversation, Hamid shares the reality of caring for an orchard, the constant learning curve of farming, and the deeper philosophy that guides his approach: using everything the land offers. From turning fallen fruit into new products to repurposing pruned wood into art, his work reflects a commitment to regeneration, resourcefulness, and curiosity. We also explore the emotional and creative shifts that can happen when we slow down, step away from the screen, and reconnect with nature, and how that connection can ripple into entirely new projects, communities, and ways of living.

Tune in to learn more about:

• Hamid’s journey from city life and corporate work into farming
• How FlameTree Farms began and what it looks like today
• The reality of orchard care, and why it’s far more work than most people realize
• What it means to farm regeneratively in a small-scale orchard
• Creative ways to reduce waste and use every part of the land
• Edible “weeds” and overlooked plants and their nutritional value
• How pruning, composting, and mulching can become part of a closed-loop system
• The role of curiosity and creativity in sustainable farming
• Why challenges and mistakes are essential to growth in farming (and life)
• How reconnecting with nature can unlock deeper purpose and creativity

Connect + Learn More

• Hamid's Instagram: ⁠@flametreefarm
• Connect with Hannah: ⁠⁠⁠⁠@hannahkeitel ⁠⁠⁠

Foundations in Land Stewardship

Hamid is one of the farm teachers in the Foundations in Land Stewardship program here in San Diego.

This in-person farm school is designed for aspiring farmers, land stewards, and anyone looking to deepen their relationship with land and food systems. Throughout the program, participants will learn directly from experienced growers like Hamid and explore different approaches to regenerative agriculture in real-world settings.

You can find more details here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.handsinthesoil.farm/farmschool⁠

In this episode of Hands in the Soil, we sit down with Michelle Bearmar of Black Mountain Farm, a diversified farm rooted in pasture-raised poultry, eggs, vegetables, and regenerative land stewardship. After years of raising chickens, gardening, and learning alongside her family, she found herself pulled deeper into small-scale agriculture through Wild Willow Farm’s Winter School and sustainable agriculture studies. What began as a backyard pursuit eventually became a full-time farm business.

We talk about why chickens became the heart of her farm, what pasture-raised poultry actually looks like in practice, and how animals, soil, and vegetables all function together as one living system. Michelle shares the realities of raising birds on pasture, from feed costs and predator protection to geese as guard animals and building healthier soil through rotational systems. We also dive into the less glamorous but equally important side of farming: business, record keeping, and learning how to make a farm financially sustainable. This conversation is full of practical wisdom for anyone dreaming of starting a farm, and a reminder that farming is as much about community and long-term learning as it is about growing food.

Tune in to learn more about:

• Michelle’s journey from engineering into full-time farming
• Why chickens became the foundation of Black Mountain Farm
• What pasture-raised poultry really means, and how it differs from conventional systems
• The role of supplemental feed, custom grain mixes, and why feed is one of the biggest farm expenses
• How geese became unexpected protectors against aerial predators
• Rotational grazing, chicken tractors, and how birds improve pasture health
• How poultry and vegetables work together to build soil fertility
• The importance of feeding soil microbes instead of just feeding plants
• The challenge of learning the business side of farming
• Why mentorship, community, and starting small matter so much for new farmers

Connect + Learn More

• Visit Black Mountain Farm:
  https://farmblackmountain.com/
• Instagram: @black_mtn_farm
• Connect with Hannah: ⁠⁠⁠@hannahkeitel ⁠⁠

Foundations in Land Stewardship

Michelle is one of our farm teachers in the upcoming Foundations in Land Stewardship program here in San Diego.

This 3-month in-person farm school is designed for aspiring farmers, land stewards, and anyone looking to deepen their relationship with land and food systems. Throughout the program, we’ll be visiting farms and learning directly from experienced growers and land stewards—including Michelle at Black Mountain Farm.

We’re so excited to begin and to get to learn from her in person soon.

You can find more details here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.handsinthesoil.farm/farmschool

In this episode of Hands in the Soil, we sit down with Alyssa Frutos, co-owner of Ranchito Milky Way, a small organic vegetable farm in Bonita, California. Ranchito Milky Way operates across multiple urban plots, growing seasonal produce and distributing it through a unique, farmstand-style CSA designed to bring people directly onto the land. Rooted in organic and regenerative practices, Alyssa and her husband Christian are creating a space where people can reconnect with their food, their farmers, and the ecosystems that sustain them.

Alyssa shares her journey into agriculture, from dairy farming and international work in the Peace Corps to co-creating a thriving, community-centered farm business. We explore the realities of small-scale farming, low-to-no-till soil practices, and the evolution of their farmstand CSA model. This conversation is both practical and deeply human, offering insight into what it looks like to build a farm rooted in relationship, curiosity, and care.

Tune in to learn more about:

• Alyssa’s path into agriculture, from WWOOFing and dairy farming to international work and farming in San Diego
• What it looks like to operate a farm across multiple urban plots, and the challenges and opportunities within that model
• How Ranchito Milky Way reimagined the traditional CSA into a flexible, farmstand-style experience
• The intention behind bringing customers onto the farm, and how it deepens connection to food
• Low-to-no-till soil practices, composting strategies, and the use of Korean Natural Farming (Jadam) inputs
• Why ongoing education (through courses, mentorship, and community) is essential for farmers
• The relationship between growing and eating food, and why both are necessary for a thriving food culture
• A reframe on pests, biodiversity, and what it means to farm in partnership with nature

Connect + Learn More

• Visit Ranchito Milky Way: www.ranchitomilkyway.farm
• Instagram: @ranchito.milkyway.farmstand
• Farm Stand Hours: Sundays, 10am - 2pm (7275 San Miguel Rd, Bonita, CA 91902)
• Connect with Hannah: ⁠⁠@hannahkeitel ⁠

Foundations in Land Stewardship:

Alyssa will be one of the teachers in the upcoming Foundations in Land Stewardship program in San Diego, a 3-month, in-person farm school designed for aspiring farmers, land stewards, and anyone looking to deepen their relationship with land and food systems.

Applications close on April 25th, with limited spots remaining and full scholarships available.

You can find more details and apply here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.handsinthesoil.farm/farmschool⁠d