Meet Your Host and Intro!

my email! hannah@hannahatthegardens.com

Transcript

Audio Only - All Participants: 0:00

Happy Tuesday, and welcome to the very first episode of the Global Stewardship Podcast. This is the first of many, as I have months and months worth of guests lined up for you guys to connect with and be inspired by.

0:12

This is going to be a short one today. I want this episode to serve kind of as a get to know the host and just for you to hear my heart behind why I'm doing this podcast every week. And what's in it for you. Partly because I'm gonna be interviewing other farmers every single week, but I want you to know the person who is interviewing them. This is the Farming and Food System podcast. I feel like we've been missing, it's not going to be a bunch of exact how-tos for beginning farmers teaching you exactly how to start a farm, or it's not even gonna be the current farming news. Just real, raw, honest stories of food producers and leaders trying to transform the world with their small steps of faithfulness in their own businesses and their lives.

Audio Only - All Participants: 0:52

My name is Hannah and I'm a first generation farmer at a farm called Kingdom Gardens in South Carolina in the United States, and you may know me online as Hannah at the Gardens. I've been sharing on social media for now five years, sharing about our food system and traveling to farms all around the world to help you connect with where your food comes from. Being a traveling farmer definitely has its limitations. I'm just one person, and not to mention I'm a farmer. I'm growing a family and I just can't be in dozens of places at once. Traveling all around the place. Sharing these impactful stories with you. And so the Global Stewardship Podcast is literally just the next step on this overarching mission to help consumers connect with their farmers and to encourage growers to adopt more nature friendly practices. I believe that we were given this earth to steward and to take care of, and that means that it is totally on us to nourish the land and care for the soil, ethically produce food in ways that gives back more than it takes. That being said, I plan to welcome guests from all walks of life. I believe that there is so much to learn from farmers, like regardless if they check all the boxes or if they have perfect immaculate growing practices. I really value opinions and perspectives from farmers of all kinds, and so that's what you're gonna find here. And I won't just be hosting farmers either. This podcast is a place for stewards all around. So coming from the coast, for example, I never forget about the people who are producing and catching food on the water. And there's just so much more to the story than the traditional farmer. You may be thinking of a little bit more about my story is that I actually grew up traveling all around the world. My dad's a pilot and he offered us the opportunity to travel a lot when I was really, really young, and I think that that totally allowed me to catch the travel bug because as soon as I entered high school, my family started letting me spend every summer abroad and sometimes even beyond summers. An example of a really life changing thing that happened in my childhood was my parents pulled me out of school in the fourth grade and we went to Thailand. And just traveled the whole country. So when I turned 15, I spent my first full summer away from home alone in Barcelona, Spain. Basically, as long as I could find a reputable program and figure out how to pay for my expenses, my family let me choose where I wanted to go and let me do it. And I've had some just really incredible experiences because they let me have that freedom. But even early, early on, like that time in Thailand, getting to spend time on rice farms as a 9-year-old is just something that totally rewires your brain. And so I definitely have a deep love for farming around the world and feel like my perspective is super unique. And I've been a bit nomadic ever since. But in those first several years I visited countless, countless places and saw very quickly how different farming is all around the world than the large scale industrialized row cropping that I was used to seeing in the states. And that's not saying that that row cropping. System doesn't exist elsewhere at all, or that like regenerative natural practices aren't common here in the US either. I'm just saying that this was my first real exposure. Travel was my first exposure to truly organic, regenerative, natural minded farming that nourishes the land instead of degrading it.

4:10

And also not trying to say at all that large scale farming is inherently bad. That is not what I'm trying to get across here. Many, many, many farmers that join me on these episodes will be from really large scale farms, but are still absolutely making waves and nature friendly farming, reducing carbon emissions, seed saving, and just so many things. There are so many topics you can't even begin to imagine what we're gonna cover on here.

Audio Only - All Participants: 4:34

And in many places around the world, you know, people still shop directly from their farmers or at least the local market. Uh, you know, that is unfortunately is fading out of existence everywhere in the world. But there are still people in many places that go to the market every day for their food. I remember visiting a town in France where instead of newspaper getting delivered into their mail slots, they have special slots for fresh baguettes delivered every single day by their town Baker. Literally guys, a newspaper slot for bread baked every day. Do you have that kind of connection with the person who bakes your bread? So just seeing that kind of connection to where people's food comes from. Really lit a fire in me to share about this stuff with other people around the world. So I've spent a lot of time on different farms and have honestly not stopped, and that's ultimately what led me to starting my own farm here in South Carolina, just because I felt that people in this part of our country didn't have the exposure to that kind of farming or holistic community, and I really wanted to offer that. Access to connection to the land, to people here in the Carolinas, and it's just naturally flowed into my social media and sharing about the farms I visit around the world. I truly have a passion for this conversation. And so something that's super unique about this podcast is that my guests will be coming from literally all over the globe. A lot of food producers who are leading the way in the movement towards better land stewardship will be on the podcast, but not the big names that maybe you're used to hearing. If you are in the food systems scene, these will be people who are the unsung heroes. And really just a lot of inspiring, one of a kind stories that you're not gonna hear anywhere else. I know many of these guests personally and have spent a lot of time on some of their farms, but there will also be plenty of farming guests, food producing guests that I'm excited to be meeting for the first time and sharing those conversations with you. There will be authors, scientists, food system leaders, all kinds of people that make for really exciting conversations about our food and the land and improved stewardship, overall stewardship of our bodies, our health, and ultimately the planet. And if you're wondering what I mean by the word stewardship, what I'm about to say will probably set the stage for literally the next hundred hundreds of episodes.

6:54

I want to assure you that although I'm about to go on a whole rant about biblical stewardship, this is a farming and food system podcast, and so don't expect this every single week. If this is something that you're not familiar with

Audio Only - All Participants: 7:05

Although this is not a Bible preaching podcast, I'm a Christian, and I am only saying this because I think that it's really important to understand my working definition of stewardship. Jesus saved my life through a miracle in the hospital when I was 16. So. I wasn't raised in a Christian home, but have had this radical worldview shift. After that experience, I often refer to the earth, the planet, mother nature, the great outdoors as creation, like creation with a capital C. And you know, why not? I know that people are going to ask what happened. So I'll just briefly share the story. The reason I was in the hospital, I had something called esophagitis where my throat, my esophagus was literally eroding. I hadn't been able to eat or drink it in days, days, days, days. I'd been in the hospital for several days. Well, long story short, the IV was not cutting it. I wasn't getting enough nutrients, and so the next morning I was gonna have to go. Through another procedure that would go through my heart to help nourish my body.'cause I wasn't able to eat or drink and nourish myself. And I'd really been asking a lot of questions about Jesus. It was really fascinating to me that you didn't have to do all these things. There was nothing required of you other than a relationship with God. And I had done a ton of research on different religions throughout the years and. Kind of dabbled in some others. So I've been actually watching a lot of apologetics videos on YouTube, which apologetics is just the debating like proof and I normally would be a really emotional thinker, just. Let my emotions decide for me, but I was really wanting the facts, the evidence, which is kind of unlike me. But I really was in this circumstance and so long story short, while I was in the hospital, a youth pastor from my town showed up in the hospital that night before I had to undergo the next phase of care, the following morning, and he confidently, almost like nonchalant, just with full belief, prayed over me for a miraculous healing. And that is exactly what happened. I actually remember thinking to myself, if you're real. You know, you better show yourself right now, like this is the freaking moment. And sure enough, within a couple hours I was eating food again. I almost had just this internal feeling of getting stitched back up. It was something that I could never put into words. My body was all of a sudden kicked into high gear healing itself without any rhyme or reason. And all of the nurses were absolutely mind blown. The doctor of course said it was a miracle. And well, that's what it was. It was a miracle, That tangent and caveat to say it just naturally flows out of my mouth to say things like stewardship and creation and conviction. And there are just certain words and phrases that I realize some people aren't used to saying or thinking that I just tend to throw into conversations because of my worldview. I also want you to feel like we are sitting here together and like you're part of the conversation. So I do want you to feel like you personally know me and where I'm coming from. But the main reason I mention this is because this is called the Global Stewardship Podcast, and understanding the word stewardship is key here. The beginning of the Bible, actually, not the Bible, the Old Testament, which is a religious text that's part of the cannon of many, many faiths, Islam, Judaism, Christianity. It's actually really fascinating that we all ascribe to like the same history pretty much up until Jesus totally rocked the boat. But in Genesis, in this Old Testament. Book that many people read and follow as truth. God very clearly lays the foundation for us that he created everything and then brought humans along to care for it and steward it. And I find that a lot of people use the word dominion to say, oh, we're here to take charge of it or rule over it. And that totally misses the point of God's original intended design. Where we were supposed to come alongside him in a loving, careful, tender heart way and have a deep relationship with the environment that he had. So for me, this entire podcast isn't coming out of a place of fear over climate change or like worry that our top soils are just gonna all blow away and turn into desert. But side note, did you guys know that Egypt used to be green? That's a whole nother podcast episode. But no, I'm not concerned right now that the whole earth is going to turn into desert, but the Global Stewardship Podcast doesn't come from a place of fear or hatred, but of love and hopefulness out of the conviction that I truly believe we have a divine higher calling and that the majority of lands around the world are not following that calling to a t. Although I do believe that most farmers, most land stewards are striving to do better and better and better, my goal is to uplift the voices of the people who are taking it really seriously and who are setting the example for the rest of us and who are truly making a difference in the world through the way they produce food. I would love for the world to start feeling smaller and smaller for you as you listen to these podcast episodes. Like right now, if you're picturing the globe, it might seem like this far off, blue and green thing. I want by the end of this year, listening to a podcast every week for you to feel like you are part of this beautiful interweb of humans. want you to be able to close your eyes and picture yourself hugging the globe, like feeling like you're in it. You're part of this interconnectedness. And I want you to feel like you personally know farmers all around the world and feel like you have a friend in another country after every single episode passes. Especially if you're a farmer or you're interested in caring for a little slice of land, it can feel really isolating. But knowing that there are so many other farmers around the world who are natural minded and who are leaving behind the systems that wreak havoc on the environment, I want you to. Feel like you have found those like-minded people every week and know that you are not alone in this fight. And my goal is for you to leave every single week energized and eager to get out there and take even better care of the earth than before. I am really excited for you guys to hear from these people and to get to know them, but I'm also super thrilled to now have this whole new outlet as a way to get to know you as well. So I would absolutely love it if you would reach out and let me know that you're listening. Feel free to always give me feedback. Let me know what you liked. Let me know what you didn't like. Send me recommendations for folks that you think would be really great guests on the podcast and including yourself if you're a rockstar food producer. And remember that although I have been visiting farmers all around the world, sharing about it for years, I've never been a podcast host before, and so I know God is calling me to do this. I know this is the next right step, and I'm so ecstatic about it, but it is really new. I'm super stoked to see where it goes, but please give me the grace and keep listening'cause I know it's gonna get better and better and better over time. And tune in for all of the incredible guests who have such life changing things to share with us and who have stories that deserve to be heard by other farmers and conscious consumers around the world. I vow to give it my all and show up week after week after week. If you guys do not gimme feedback, I'm literally just talking to another person on a screen here. I invite you, open invitation. Please communicate with me. I have direct messages on social media. I'm on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, my e. Mail is Hannah at hannah@thegardens.com, That can be a confusing email, so I'll put it in the show notes, but I would really like to stay in touch and build community and keep you updated every week on where I'm at in the world, who I had on the podcast, and I'm just so grateful that you're here and listening.

14:51

And I encourage you to listen to the end of the episode every single week. It will help me out as a podcast host, but more importantly, guests open up more and more and more throughout every single interview. And so by listening to the end, I think you're gonna get the full insight that they're trying to share and really get, a true glimpse into their life. That about wraps it up for this first quick intro I will catch you again next Tuesday where we're going to jump in full fledge into the deep end with our very first podcast guest, So you then have a fantastic week.