SEPTEMBER 12, 2003: After 8 years of working
as an engineer for a telephone company in New York City, Janet
Hahn knew she needed to do something different. “Corporate
America was just not what I was looking for,” said Hahn,
a tall, loquacious visionary and parent of five young children.
“I was doing all the things I was supposed to do but
there was a real empty feeling and I knew something was missing.”
When Hahn’s mother contracted uterine and colon cancer
in 1991, Hahn decided to return to her home state of Ohio
for a few months to take care of her mother – a decision
that would prove to change the course of her life.
It was while searching for ways to improve her mother’s
health that Hahn became interested in organic products. “The
food issue came up rather quickly and I started reading about
and learning more about our food supply,” she said.
“And I guess I was just really shocked to learn how
animals were raised and all the chemicals and stuff that were
used on the crops.”
Hahn found several local farms where she could purchase food
for her mother and put her on a strict diet of whole, organic
foods. Hahn also became the volunteer “carrot forewoman”
on Silver Creek Organic Farm, in Hiram, and found that this
new occupation was fulfilling. “That was the big turning
point,” she said. “I really enjoyed it and decided
this was what I wanted to do.”
After officially retiring from her job, Hahn and her father
purchased the 55-acre farm outside of Garrettsville, Ohio,
where she lives today. The land consists of 30 acres of tillable
fields, a creek, and hundreds of tall maple trees. “I
just knew when I came on the farm and walked the land... I
could just feel that this is where I needed to be,”
she said. She named her land “Sweetbriar Farm.”
Hahn was 29 when she moved to the farm and now realizes that
her agricultural aspirations may have seemed a little farfetched
to neighbors. “The whole community must have been shaking
their heads – this young gal’s coming by herself...”
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| A family
affair: In the beginning, Janet received
some friendly advice from neighboring organic dairyman,
Roy. As she fell in love with farming, they fell
in love with each other. |
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Luckily, she found help from Bill and Roy Hahn, two brothers
who had managed the dairy farm across the street organically
for 30 years. Janet, who eventually married Roy, would walk
across the road every morning and glean what knowledge she
could from the two brothers while they were milking. They
helped her with projects such as loading hogs into the pick-up
truck and the construction of a green house.
Moreover, because Bill and Roy had been renting the land
that she bought, her soil was in top shape. “Where most
people who want to grow organically purchase a farm and spend
three years before they can certify it, and spend a lot longer
just trying to get soil health back, I walked into a gold
mine,” Hahn said. When she read the numbers off a soil
analysis to an expert over the phone, he laughed and told
her they basically meant that she didn’t need him.
Hahn began raising a variety of garden vegetables to sell
to wholesale markets but soon found that selling them was
more difficult. Organic markets weren’t moving much
quantity and she had to compete with low-priced vegetables
from California or flooded markets. “We’ve sold
our society on the idea of cheap food,” she lamented.
Unable to pay the bills wholesaling, Hahn began a Community
Supported Agriculture program in 1994. After a couple years,
a shortage of labor prompted her to begin selling only “working
shares,” which meant customers had to agree to work
on the farm a certain number of hours. “Those were the
best years of our lives,” Hahn said. “The appreciation
level changed dramatically when they had to come out and work.”
Hahn also valued the organic family that developed through
the CSA. “This was a wonderful way for us to build community
and connect with people of like mind. And we learned so much
from each other.” Customers learned what it took to
produce food and traded home remedies, experiences, and recipes
in the fields.
Unfortunately, Hahn, who by then had four young children,
was unable to get enough working shares to make it worth her
time and energy. “Everything looked great on the outside,”
she said. “But on the inside we weren’t making
enough money and it was stressful on our family.” Hahn
finally ceased running the CSA two years ago and calls that
decision one of the hardest things she’s ever had to
do. She still gets Christmas cards from former members and
hopes to launch it again when her kids are older.
Hahn now runs an organic market, which is located on her
farm and is open twice a week. This market began as a drop
point for local growers and has grown into a store that stocks
items such as organic beef, lamb, pork, and chicken, medicinal
herbs, homemade salves, garden vegetables, and maple syrup.
Hahn’s family produces many of these items, such as
the hand-collected maple syrup, which amounted to over 200
gallons last year.
Hahn has also begun to sell homemade soap, an item that she
makes largely from the milk of her small herd of Nubian, La
Mancha, and Saanen goats. “Milk has been used for health
and beauty for years because it’s packed with nutrients.”
Hahn said. “There’s nothing nicer than a goat
milk bath. But most of us today are not going to sit in a
goat milk bath so I said ‘what better than to have it
in soap.’”
After tinkering with the recipe, Hahn has been able to make
bars of soap that include goats milk and vegetable oils in
equal amounts. She sells many different varieties. “Helping
Hands” includes essential oils of tea tree, peppermint,
eucalyptus and clove, and is recommended for healing. “Baby
Baby” is an unscented bar with extra cream for delicate
skin. “Almond Scrub” is for dry skin, and “Vanilla
Almond” includes oatmeal and is recommended for oily
skin. Hahn speculates that her goats milk makes such good
soap because her goats have access to ample organic pasture,
wild plants, organic hay, natural mineral supplements, and
fresh grain and water.
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| Clean
machines : Milk from Hahns's herd of Nubian,
La Mancha and Saanen goats goes into her much-sought-after
line of handmade soaps. |
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Hahn explained that the hardest part is getting people to
try the soap, but that once they do, they’re hooked.
The majority of her steady customers now use it and Hahn has
a friend who has sold quite a bit at a nearby market. She
is working with another woman who is helping her with marketing
to different parts of the country. Hahn hopes that the soap,
which doesn’t need refrigeration and can be made year-round,
will give them the money they need to continue. “It
would justify us being here. It would justify the goats,”
she said. “I am still determined that we will make the
farm pay for itself.”
If they can get the farm to be sustainable financially, Hahn
would like to have more time to spend teaching, which she
has done much of already. “I have never felt like I
owned this place,” she said. “I’m just the
caretaker. The farm was always to be open – to anyone
and everyone.” Hahn has recently taught soap making
classes and a maple candy making class for a Waldorf school.
She also has given tours for co-ops and this year hosted a
farm city tour in which 2000 people came through the farm
in 3 hours. Hahn hopes that in the future, with more help
from her children, she will be able to focus on hosting classes
on all the wonderful things that people can do in their own
back yard.
Hahn continues to be extremely dedicated to living what she
sees is an “organic lifestyle.” All of her children,
who range in age from 2 months to eight years, were born at
home and none have been immunized. This past year she home-schooled
her children largely because she didn’t like the consumer
culture they were being introduced to at school.
Additionally, Hahn strives to keep whole, organic, locally
bought food in her cupboards and buys only toilet paper from
the grocery store. She wishes that other organic farmers would
do the same, noting that some organic farmers grow organic
food but go to McDonalds for lunch. She explained that the
word “organic” has become a legal terminology
rather than a way of life that includes whole foods and small
farms. “We’re at the point of having organic Twinkies,”
she said.
Though Hahn is still struggling to earn a living by farming,
she is grateful for all that she has. “I feel very blessed
that I’m able to be here,” she said. “And
although we’ve struggled some from the financial standpoint,
I’ve got wealth beyond belief.” Hahn points to
the beauty of the farm, the clean water they enjoy from their
spring-fed creek, and the fact that they know where their
food comes from.
Perhaps the most precious blessing is that Hahn’s
mother, who now eats only whole, organic foods, is in great
health. “I think cancer is an opportunity to reevaluate,”
Hahn said. “Where some people look at it as a real negative,
I think it’s been a positive in our family. Because
it’s forced us to look at who we were, what was important
to us, and to say ‘alright we need to make changes.’”
The changes Hahn has made have enriched her and her family’s
life and she hopes to continue to be able to live out her
ideals. “If we had all the money in the world, we’d
still live on this farm,” she said. “Hopefully
we’ll make it all work. I think we’re supposed
to be here – that I haven’t given up on.”
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