Humble Hands Harvest
Decorah, IA
Apprenticeship Mentor Farm
Agroforestry Systems:
Silvopasture
Farm Information
Humble Hands Harvest is a small, diversified farm in the Driftless region of Northeast Iowa growing organic vegetables, pastured pork, and grass-fed lamb for CSA at Decorah Farmers Market. Started by Hannah Breckbill and Emily Fagan in 2017, this women-owned and worker-owned farm gained land access when 22 acres near Decorah came up for sale at auction. A neighbor rallied a group of about 20 people to buy the land in shares. The group of buyers formed an LLC and started transitioning the land to hay to hold the soil and shift to organic.Â
Hannah worked with the LLC for three years before carving out 8 acres for Humble Hands Harvest to establish a permanent home. Hannah and Emily planted a variety of tree crops on the land, where they graze animals and grow an abundance of vegetables. The farm is committed to regenerative agriculture that feeds the community, improves the soil, and deepens the human relationship to the land.
Located: Decorah, IA
Apprenticeship Opportunities
We are a worker-owned cooperative, and we hire employees with the possibility of onboarding them into worker-ownership after 2-3 years of employment. We generally ask our employees to contribute opinions and ideas to the farm’s bigger-picture decision making, as a taste of ownership, though the worker-owners do have the final say.
We hire full- or part-time, mid-April through October.
Availability: Open
Qualifications
- Previous farming experience is expected.
- This job requires physical capacity to work in all weather, bend over, kneel, squat, and lift 50 lbs that might be a kicking sheep.
- An attention to detail is essential to food farming, as is a larger vision of the whole process.
Benefits
- Pay: $11-12/hr.
- Housing: There is a shared house on the farm. A bedroom is $475/month with a month-to-month lease, and apprentices who want access to housing will be prioritized for a room. Apprentices are also welcome to find housing off farm.
- Food: Vegetables on the farm are free to workers! And you can access our meat at a discount. We share lunches during workdays, rotating cooking duties among the workers.
- Remoteness: We are 8 miles from Decorah, a small but vibrant college town. Our internet is not great out here, but most people get cell signals on the farm.
See More Apprenticeship Mentor Farms
Support Our Work
Sponsor an Apprentice
Your gift could provide experience and technical education for aspiring farmers through on-farm training with a mentor farmer and community building opportunities for farmers, apprentices, and those interested in incorporating trees on farmland.Â