For years, the Arcadia Project operated using the name Axe & Root Homestead, which started in 2013 or 2014 on a small .75-acre property. The intention was not to make a career of farming or homesteading—rather I was pivoting from my full time career as a graphic and website designer, working for a design business I’d built from the ground up and had run successfully for ten years. After having my first child, that career no longer fit. I suffered from postpartum depression and realized I was having a major identity shift—I no longer wanted to work the self-employed job I’d hustled for so long to create. Instead I wanted to be outside, grow my own food, feed my new child fresh, chemical-free food, and so on. I wanted to feed my family. My husband was so supportive and we decided I’d close my doors. I learned to grow food vertically to take maximum advantage of our small space, studied edible landscaping, we bought ducks for eggs, I took a beekeeping class, and I started making homemade bread and soap. I wanted to share everything I was learning and creating online so I started an Instagram account. Axe & Root Homestead was born… an impromptu name that encapsulated nothing more than my axe-swinging approach to getting this little homestead going, and my husband’s more rooted, analytic approach to everything in life.

Axe & Root Homestead grew quickly online all while I moved properties from my .75-acre plot to a 6-acre historic farm. At the new site I dove headfirst in sustainable practices. I’m a very eco-conscious person (my graphic design business was a green design firm and my shelves are lined with environmentally conscious living books and guides) and I started calling my way of farming “holistic homesteading,” where all plants and animals worked together and complimented one another, just like companion plants. I was farming in support of nature, and I was creating a little ecosystem. I then found out through learning that this ideology had a name—permaculture. I kept learning, kept building, and in 2023 I became certified through Cornell University as a Permaculturist. Now I strive to share this passion for natural homestead living with others through my Instagram account, online homesteading courses, my plant-based cookbook called The Harvest Table, The Little Homesteader/Little Country Cottage series, and The Sustainable Homestead.

In 2025 we rebranded Axe & Root Homestead as The Arcadia Project. This name better positions us to communicate our passion for sustainable living, land stewardship practices and our nature-first approach to growing food for our family.