Weaving Together Community and Good Food

Hannah

On the edge of Ann Arbor, at the Tillian Farm Development Center, dark leafy greens and crisp, flavorful salad mixes are artfully tended by Hannah Rose Webber. A first-generation farmer, Hannah is in her third season cultivating crops as The Land Loom. She currently rents 1.5 acres at Tillian where she follows organic practices to produce high-quality greens and summer fruits (tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, etc.).

The Land Loom Field2

Hannah was drawn to farming thanks, in part, to her upbringing in the Northwest Michigan food system. Her parents have been long-time members of Meadowlark Farm’s CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) program and Hannah remembers using this fresh food to help craft delicious family meals. This early exposure to fresh, local food ultimately led Hannah to explore agriculture as a career. After graduating college with a fine arts degree, Hannah traveled the world interning at various farm operations: a goat farm in Portugal, a tropical permaculture farm in Hawaii, and back to Meadowlark Farm in Lake Leelanau. These experiences solidified her interest in agriculture and led her to enroll in the Organic Farmer Training Program at MSU’s Student Organic Farm. She stayed on after completing the program to manage the farm’s year-round CSA program. In 2013, Hannah moved to Ann Arbor to help manage Sunseed Farm. After these varied, deep, and educational experiences, Hannah decided to begin her own agricultural endeavor, The Land Loom, in 2015.

Hannah is continually drawn to sustainable agriculture due to the physical and varied nature of the work and the opportunity it provides her independent, entrepreneurial spirit to thrive. She is inspired to continue to farm largely due to the strong community that is developed through agriculture and her desire to help people connect to where their food is grown. She sees her farm as a community space that also happens to grow some (delicious!) food.

The Land Loom produce can be accessed through:

Kelly Wilson is the SE Michigan Local Food Coordinator for Taste the Local Difference. She operates Simple Gifts Farm in Oxford and is a registered dietitian. Contact her at [email protected]