There were never many limits set for Hannah within reason as a child. She lead her father on long walks outside at age 3, built useful tools out of recyclables at age 7, wrote persuasive essays about ending class divides at age 14, and blew glass instead of going to high school at age 17.
After deciding not to go directly to college, Hannah worked until she had enough money to travel to Ecuador for four months by herself. The freedom of riding public buses packed with strangers to beaches, mountains, and jungles planted a seed in her to explore different cultures, environments, and ideas.
Since then she has led backcountry trail maintenance crews on the national hiking trails (PCT & AT), studied Sustainability and Environmental Justice at UMass Amherst, worked at the Food Bank Farm in Hadley, and facilitated a student-run community garden at UMass. After two seasons (2009-2010) of interning at a goat dairy making cheese in Monterey, MA, Hannah traveled to Argentina and Chile to backpack in Patagonia, brush up on Spanish, and work with other forward thinking people. She returned in March 2011 and worked for Old Friends Farm in Amherst growing cut-flowers, ginger, veggies, greens, and eggs.
Hannah has taken on big challenges that require looking at the whole picture. She sees that problems cannot be broken down into many different pieces if we want to heal the world. All of the issues from hunger, environmental degradation, racism, terrorism, cancer…the list goes on, are all deeply connected. Therefore, we have to solve major problems by addressing the root causes. The opportunity to heal grows every day.
Growing food happens to be one of the ways Hannah has figured out how to heal her community, the land, and herself all at once. However, she would never weed the garden when her mother asked her to at home. Hannah must have expected that pulling weeds would be a common activity later in life, so she would save the fun until then.
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Contact:
Hannah Jacobson-Hardy, sweetbirchherbals@gmail.com, www.sweetbirchherbals.com, 413.695.5968
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The writing on this blog solely reflects the ideas and opinions of Hannah Jacobson-Hardy.
A note on reproducing my photos: Please do not reproduce my photographs unless given permission. Thank you.
Farming for Justice 
Hi Hannah-I am a friend of your mom’s. I went to see your photographs in Northampton at River Valley and thought they were great. Thank you for being such a positive and powerful example of free thinking and justice. Diane.
Hi Hannah,
What a beautiful site, I love your pictures and writing. It’s quite a powerful thing, being a woman farmer and travelling, speaking, sharing. I have become more outspoken in the struggle against machismo to be taken seriously as a woman farmer in Central America – if your travels bring you down this direction you have a place to stay and lots of farming connections in Nicaragua!
take care,
Rachel
Hi Hannah. I wanted to again comment on your beautiful pictures and your extraordinary writings. I also want you to know that, in part, because of your writings, I will be leaving for Grand Canyon and Sedona on May 14. It is something I have dreamed of doing all my life and redddading your blog convinced me I need to do it. Thank you. Diane.
hi haaaannnaaahhh!
we went to visit our friends george and laura last week and brought them some of your cheese… it was a big hit. laura is a kindred sole and would like to come visit the farm when they are up in lenox in a few weeks. she may contact you (laura silverman is her name..you might remember george billard, he is one of our oldest and dearest friends). you should also check out lauras blog..you might like it.
http://gluttonforlife.com/
Your mom forwarded me your blog address and I am glad she did. You remind me (again) how far away the food we eat is from its origins.
Even shopping in the local food coop with all its information about the food, it is easy to overlook the hands and minds that work to bring this cornucopia of life to our homes.
Thank you.
thank you for reading rene! its my pleasure to share this information with you and i am glad you are interested in the topic. ¡buen provecho!
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Hi Hannah Your mother and I justj got back in touch and she gave me this wonderful blog!! I adore your pictures and admire your life. In fact it is an inspiration and my my partner and I embark on our retirement journey hither and yon. I will join it and tell you about my blog when I get it up.
Judith- Thank you for reading and offering such encouraging words. I look forward to reading your blog!
Thnks