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Roots and Refuge Podcast

Roots and Refuge Podcast

Jessica Sowards 92 Episodes Dec 17, 2025

Hosted by Jessica Sowards, the Roots and Refuge Podcast is about homesteading, farming, and growing your own food. Jess shares her family’s journey from wanting a small farm to living on one and the lessons they have learned along the way. Episodes offer practical advice and personal reflections for anyone interested in a more self-sufficient life. She invites listeners to share in the beautiful, challenging work of building a homestead.

Episodes

A Life In Season
A Life In Season Dec 17, 2025 36:04 Hey y'all, welcome back to the Roots and Refuge Podcast. Today's episode is a tender one. It's about fully living in the season you're in even when that season is uncomfortable, uncertain, or deeply painful. I'm sharing honestly about the past year our family has walked through: fertility treatments, hope, loss, surrender, and the quiet work of trusting the Lord with desires I cannot carry on my o
Wielding my Humanity
Wielding my Humanity Aug 20, 2025 48:12 Hey y'all, welcome back to the Roots and Refuge Podcast! Today I'm sharing the deep heart-work I've been sitting with this summer—how to truly be human in a world that often demands otherwise. This episode isn't just about homesteading or daily rhythms, though those are part of it. It's about reclaiming rest, nourishment, relationship, and presence as sacred and non-negotiable. I talk about raisin
The Stories of My Homestead
The Stories of My Homestead Jun 18, 2025 38:46 Hey y'all, welcome back to the Roots and Refuge Podcast! In this week's episode, I'm sharing some stories from the early days of our homestead, the hard lessons, the high hopes, and the deep love that has grown in the soil of our farm over the years. This episode was recorded in a season of low battery mode for me, a time when I was physically and emotionally drained, but still showing up to care
How the Garden Taught Me to Stay
How the Garden Taught Me to Stay Jun 11, 2025 44:59 Hey there, darlings welcome back to the Roots and Refuge Podcast. In this episode, How the Garden Taught Me to Stay, I'm sharing some tender thoughts on restlessness. You know that feeling that makes you want to change everything when life gets too quiet, too slow, or too honest? The garden, in its steady and unhurried way, has taught me something different. It taught me to be present, to hold sti
Growing a Culture
Growing a Culture Jun 3, 2025 01:04:57 Hey there, darlings welcome back to the Roots and Refuge Podcast. Today we're digging into how to grow a life-giving family culture on purpose. From learning to be fully present at the dinner table to teaching our kids that hard work feels good, I share the seven pillars shaping our home—and the garden metaphors that keep me humble. We'll talk screens, Sabbath-style rest, telling the whole truth (
To Enjoy The Food You Grow
To Enjoy The Food You Grow May 28, 2025 45:14 Hey there, darlings welcome back to the Roots and Refuge Podcast. Today I'm sharing a slower, sweeter reflection on something that's been on my heart lately, the joy of growing your own food. With the busyness of spring, harvests starting to roll in, and everything asking for our attention, it's easy to rush past the wonder of it all. But I want to invite you to savor it. Whether you've grown one
Tending Whats In Your Reach
Tending Whats In Your Reach May 14, 2025 47:05 Hey there darlings, welcome back to the Roots and Refuge Podcast. Today's episode is one I recorded as much for myself as for you. It's a message I wish 22-year-old me could have heard—back when my dreams felt so big and my limits felt so loud. If you've ever felt overwhelmed by what you can't do, this episode is a gentle reminder that there's sacred strength in doing what you can. I'm talking abo
Motherhood: A Conversation with Regan
Motherhood: A Conversation with Regan May 7, 2025 50:13 Hey there darlings, welcome back to the Roots and Refuge Podcast. In honor of Mother's Day, I invited my sweet friend Regan on for a deeply personal and honest conversation about motherhood—what it teaches us, how it changes us, and how it shapes the lives we're building. Regan is a new mom, and I'm just about to watch my oldest son turn twenty. We're in such different seasons, but we share a love
Rooted and Ready (Lets Talk Preparedness)
Rooted and Ready (Lets Talk Preparedness) May 1, 2025 41:46 Hey y'all, welcome back to the Roots and Refuge Podcast! Let's talk about preparedness, not the kind you see on sensational TV shows or fear-driven social media, but the kind that grows from peace, purpose, and love. In this episode I'm sharing my thoughts on what it really means to be rooted and ready in a world that feels increasingly uncertain. We're talking food security, skill-building, and h
Some Fool Without a Phone (The Balance of Homesteading)
Some Fool Without a Phone (The Balance of Homesteading) Apr 23, 2025 49:10 Hey y'all, welcome back to the Roots and Refuge Podcast! This week, I'm sharing some thoughts from a damp, full spring garden and continuing a theme we've been sitting with these last few weeks—living slow, present, and rooted in truth. In this episode, we're talking about balance—in nature, in our minds, and in the kind of lives we're building. I share a bit about learned helplessness and how the
The Kind of Person Who Bakes Bread
The Kind of Person Who Bakes Bread Apr 16, 2025 36:26 Hey y'all, welcome back to the Roots and Refuge Podcast! This week, I'm sharing some thoughts from the middle of a very full season—spring is here in South Carolina, and the weeds are wild, the animals are having babies, and I'm neck-deep in garden work. But in all of that, I've been thinking a lot about the difference between the idea of a thing and the reality of it. In this episode, I talk
A Simple Life - The Richness of Presence
A Simple Life - The Richness of Presence Apr 9, 2025 40:54 Hey y'all, welcome back to the Roots and Refuge Podcast! This week we're continuing the conversation we started last time—shifting from understanding the nervous system to really choosing to slow down and live simply. In this episode, I'm sharing what it means to build a slower life on purpose and how the richness of presence can change everything. We talk about romanticizing the everyday, practic

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