Anna Hankins & Shae Pesek

Over the Moon Farm and Flowers, located in Eastern, Iowa, is co-owned by Anna Hankins (she/her) & Shae Pesek (she/her), queer farmers who are partners in both business and life. In 2019, Over the Moon Farm & Flowers began as a cut-flower enterprise, and later expanded into livestock with Over the Moon Meats. Anna and Shae currently pasture-raise turkey, chicken, duck, laying hens, and heritage pork, in addition to marketing beef that’s raised by their brother/brother-in-law. Over the Moon is committed to serving their rural neighbors by keeping livestock on the land, supporting the local economy, and offering their community (and beyond) access to delicious, high-quality, humanely raised meats.

Ultimately, Anna & Shae have big plans: “Our long term vision is to continue building a diverse, resilient, and collaborative business that grows food and flowers. We prioritize taking care of the land, our community, and one another. We recognize that our current scale of production is only a drop in the bucket, and hope, through intentional decision making, business planning, and collaborations with other growers, that we can work towards building a more robust regional food and flower economy that has the capacity to nourish people at a much larger scale, as well as support other key rural institutions such as meat processors, grocery stores, other local businesses, future young entrepreneurs, and more.”

How do you define your Good Meat® values? 

It's meat that honors all parts of the supply chain, from the hatching or birth of the animal through its rearing, processing, and distribution. It supports dignified labor that goes into all parts of production, puts economic resources back into rural communities, supports land, and nourishes individuals and communities throughout.

How did you become Good Meat® producers?

Both of us have always been big animal people. Shae grew up on her family’s cattle farm, and she was heavily active in FFA, 4-H, and meat judging. Over the years, she has raised at least a few of nearly every farm animal under the sun! She has always had a passion for agriculture, and raising livestock for meat has always been one of her main interests.

Anna’s first experience raising livestock for meat came much more recently. After moving to Iowa five years ago and living and working on her friend’s diversified vegetable and sheep farm, Local Harvest CSA, Anna got her first real taste of the cycle of producing animals for food. Growing up, Anna loved being around horses and on a family friend's dairy farm so it didn’t take long for her adult self to put the pieces together that this was something she wanted to pursue.

The simplest answer is that we both really love raising livestock. Our experience has been joyful, challenging, and it keeps our day-to-day experiences interesting and it keeps us grounded in just a whole number of ways. We know livestock is so important for our rural economy, the land, other local businesses, and the future of our farm. Farming to feed people is deeply important to us.

What is one thing you wish more consumers knew about raising livestock for food?

We wish that people knew that raising animals can teach us so much about care, community, nurturing, life, death, cycles, and subsequently ourselves.

What meat, or meat dish, do you eat most regularly and what do you eat for a special occasion?

We are Team Slow Cooker anything and everything. We eat a lot of whole chickens and think there is absolutely nothing better than a whole roasted bird with some potatoes and carrots that get perfectly crisp with that delicious fat. For special occasions, there’s nothing better than a good juicy steak, right?!

What is one of your biggest challenges as a Good Meat® producer?

One of our biggest challenges is processing infrastructure. We are currently driving a couple hours each way in order to get meat processed at a federally inspected plant (which allows us to sell it by the cut and across state lines). While we’re so thankful to have those options, it’s a substantial and costly effort to get the animals there. Limited processing options and infrastructure makes it harder to pursue value added options like producing chicken sausage from our cull hens, which would greatly help with the long term viability of our egg enterprise.