Profile
Why this voice exists in the network
Anna Brooks lives on Roots & Refuge Farm in central Arkansas with her husband Miah and their six children. She started her homesteading journey with virtually no money, learning by doing — planting seeds in borrowed land, keeping chickens in a suburban backyard, and figuring out how to feed a large family on a small budget. Over 15 years, she has built a working farm with gardens, sheep, goats, and a home-based food system. She is the author of two books: The First-Time Gardener: Growing Vegetables (Cool Springs Press, 2022) and The First-Time Homesteader (Cool Springs Press, 2024). Her YouTube channel documents daily life on the farm with raw honesty — showing both the beauty and the breakdowns. Her writing has been featured in Bon Appétit, Do South Magazine, and numerous online platforms. What sets her apart from other homesteading voices is her refusal to perform perfection: she writes openly about financial pressure, physical exhaustion, faith struggles, and the gap between the Instagram homestead and the real one. Her core message is that the ordinary work of feeding your people and tending your soil is not a lifestyle choice but a spiritual practice. She is a practicing Christian and speaks openly about how her faith shapes her approach to land, family, and resilience, but her writing reaches readers across belief systems because she leads with universal human experience — money worries, parenting fatigue, the terror of uncertain times — before she arrives at faith.
