Hands in the Soil

Hannah Keitel
  • 5.0 (15)
  • Food
  • Updated Weekly

Welcome to Hands in the Soil, the podcast that dives deep into all things food, farming, and our intricate connection to the planet. We’re shining the spotlight on all those who work closely with the Earth – from farmers and ranchers, backyard gardeners and forestry workers, to indigenous seed keepers, waterway protectors and more. Together, we'll be uprooting the unseen, and learning from stewards at the frontlines of creating solutions to the existential threats we face in the era of climate change, food scarcity, and exploitation of our finite natural resources.

  1. 1d ago

    66. Reflections on Foundations in Land Stewardship

    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-teachersHow every farm is completely different, and every farm is a reflection of the person running itThe importance of knowing your strengths, owning your weaknesses, and building something that actually works for who you areThe 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 expectWhat it means to be a positive disturbance in a landscape, and how that shifts your whole orientation to the natural worldWhy I believe you can't bring a big dream to life without first facing the parts of yourself that say it isn't possibleWhy community is both the answer to food system change and the thing food most naturally creates Sign Up for Farm School 2027If 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

  2. Aug 7

    65. Know Your Fisher w/ Emily Soye Miller

    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 eraThe 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 harmfulThe "graying of the fleet": why commercial fishing communities are aging out, shrinking, and struggling to attract the next generationWhy imports make it nearly impossible for small-scale artisanal US fishers to compete on price, and what that means for the future of local seafoodThe seafood system as a "mysterious black box" and why most people have far less understanding of it than they do of agricultureWhat responsible seafood consumerism actually looks like in San DiegoThe gentrification of wild seafood, and why Emily refuses to call it a win if local seafood only ends up on luxury menusHow 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

  3. Jul 21

    64. Lettuce Talk About the Diarrhea Outbreak

    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 lettuceWhy 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 CanadaWhy the scale that makes companies like Taylor Farms profitable is the exact same scale that makes outbreaks like this inevitableThe 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 directlyWhat food sovereignty actually looks like in practice: knowing your farmer, asking questions, growing something yourself if you can Connect with Hannah: Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@hannahkeitel ⁠⁠⁠

  4. Jul 7

    63. From Ownership to Stewardship w/ The Farmers Land Trust & Earthen Heart Farmland Commons

    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 possibleHow farmers who lease land through this model also get a seat in the ownership structure, and why that changes everythingJulian's 14-year journey as steward of the Earthen Heart property, what he learned, and what guided him toward donating rather than sellingWhat it felt like to ask the land for permission, and to receive an answerWhy healing on this land is inseparable from healing the relationship that communities of color have had with land in AmericaThe vision for Earthen Heart as a site of communal farming, collective living, a freedom school, and transformation through the seasonsThe honest challenges: finding pro bono legal support, aligning values among farm partners, navigating shared leadership, and building something with no mapWhy 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 sovereigntyThe history of the word "homesteading" and why Julian chooses to use it anyway, and the distinction between farming for sale and farming for useLiberty 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 McSweeneyEpisode 34: Creating a Farmland Commons with Ian McSweeneyEpisode 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.comJade Rabbit: jade-rabbit.orgWest Michigan Young Farmers Coalition: youngfarmers.orgConnect with Hannah on Instagram: @hannahkeitel

  5. Jun 23

    62. The Efficiency Trap: Why Doing More Isn't Doing Better w/ Andrew Flachs

    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 agricultureWhy the fight to prove that small farms can match conventional yields is the wrong fight entirelyThe "iceberg economy" and all the care work, infrastructure, and labor that lies beneath the visible surface of our food systemWhat his research across the US Midwest, Bosnia, and South India revealed about what small farming families actually share across different contextsThe 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 ratesWhy 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 forThe true costs of "cheap" food: what isn't being counted in environmental degradation, public health, labor exploitation, and soil lossWhy efficiency is often a trap, and how efficient technologies without systemic change just lead us to do more of the same harmful thingHow the current Farm Bill debate and the Iran war oil disruptions reveal the fragility of just-in-time global supply chainsWhat 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 IndiaInteractive Story Map: Cotton in Indiahttps://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 GaddisBeginning to End Hunger: Food and the Environment in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, and Beyond - Dr. Jahi Chappell Connect with Andrew Website: andrewflachs.comInstagram: @drflachsophoneEmail: aflachs@purdue.eduUniversity of Arizona Press: @azpress on Instagram Connect with Hannah: Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@hannahkeitel ⁠⁠⁠

  6. Jun 9

    61. The Real Price of Food w/ Greg Reese

    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 unlockedThe difference between gardening and farming, and how scale, markets, and business thinking change everythingWhat an agrihood is, why the concept resonates deeply, and how Fox Point Farms came to beWhy cutting out the supply chain middleman is one of the most powerful things a small farmer can doThe true cost of food: land, labor, water, machinery, government subsidies, and why "cheap" conventional produce is only cheap on the surfaceWhy Americans spend less of their income on food than almost any other developed nation, and what that says about our prioritiesThe race to the bottom on food prices, and why Greg refuses to participateGreg's step-by-step advice for anyone who wants to get started in farmingHow 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 ⁠⁠⁠

  7. May 19

    60. The Need for Systemic Change in the Food System w/ Chuck Samuelson

    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 founderHow watching a grocery store employee discard bruised apples became the seed for Kitchens for GoodWhat food insecurity actually means, and why over 800,000 people in San Diego, including more than 200,000 children, are affected by itWhy Chuck believes charity creates an "unfortunate power dynamic,” and what sovereignty in the food system looks like insteadThe four A's of hunger relief: accessible, affordable, appropriate, and awesomeHow cooperatives changed Chuck's understanding of what a local food economy can look likeThe Adopt an Avocado Tree program - how it started, how it works, and why it's expanding to other farmers and cropsThe role of storytelling and community in small farm successChuck'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 ⁠⁠⁠

  8. May 5

    59. The Art of Minimizing Waste w/ Hamid Pezeshkian

    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 farmingHow FlameTree Farms began and what it looks like todayThe reality of orchard care, and why it’s far more work than most people realizeWhat it means to farm regeneratively in a small-scale orchardCreative ways to reduce waste and use every part of the landEdible “weeds” and overlooked plants and their nutritional valueHow pruning, composting, and mulching can become part of a closed-loop systemThe role of curiosity and creativity in sustainable farmingWhy 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: ⁠@flametreefarmConnect 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

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5
out of 5
15 Ratings

About

Welcome to Hands in the Soil, the podcast that dives deep into all things food, farming, and our intricate connection to the planet. We’re shining the spotlight on all those who work closely with the Earth – from farmers and ranchers, backyard gardeners and forestry workers, to indigenous seed keepers, waterway protectors and more. Together, we'll be uprooting the unseen, and learning from stewards at the frontlines of creating solutions to the existential threats we face in the era of climate change, food scarcity, and exploitation of our finite natural resources.

Information

  • Creator
    Hannah Keitel
  • Years Active
    2024 - 2026
  • Episodes
    67
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Hannah Keitel
  • Show Website
    Hands in the Soil

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