Welcome to Wild Hearth and Homestead

Hi, I'm Raquel. I’m so incredibly glad you stumbled into our corner of the internet. If you are tired of modern dogmas, burnt out on rigid lifestyle perfectionism, and looking to reclaim a sense of true sovereignty over your kitchen, your home, and your family’s well-being—you are in the exact right place.

I am a holistic nutritionist, a scratch-cook, an alchemical herbalist, a babywearing educator, and a mother to three beautiful children. Alongside my husband, Derek, we navigate the messy, beautiful rhythms of modern self-reliance on our forested mountain homestead.

But our story isn't just about homesteading or motherhood. At its absolute core, this space is about Divine Union—and how honoring our complementary roles within the divine masculine and divine feminine energies has unlocked a profound level of flow, peace, and abundance in our relationship and on our land.

Forged in the Kitchen

My path to the divine feminine role of nurturer was forged early, out of absolute necessity. I learned the art of cooking by watching the hands of my mother and both of my grandmothers, absorbing their movements and intuition.

When I was just ten years old, my mother became bedridden with a severe chronic illness. Suddenly, I was a hungry child who had to stand at a stove and figure out how to feed my younger sister and myself. When my mother passed away when I was seventeen, I was left to navigate the world alone. By eighteen, the stress and grief manifested as a severe bout of chronic illness and debilitating stomach issues.

Desperate for healing, I turned back to the kitchen. I (re)discovered the power of traditional home cooking, dove deep into holistic nutrition, and literally used whole foods to rebuild my body. That radical transformation sparked a lifelong obsession with food sovereignty, leading me to work in professional kitchens for years, eventually serving as an executive chef. Food became my craft, my art form, and my medicine.

The Alchemical Partnership & Divine Union

In 2021, my world shifted when I met Derek. At the time, he was running an incredible enterprise IT environment by day and an alchemical, solar-infused herbal company by night. His unique, imaginative view of plant medicine unlocked a whole new world for me. We joined forces to run our wellness business from 2021 to 2023, deeply immersing ourselves in ancestral rhythms.

Through our partnership, we discovered a profound truth: divine union is present in nature and all facets of life for a reason. I could not do half of what I do as a nurturing, caring mother without the steady, protective, and grounding presence of my divine masculine counterpart.

Our ultimate dream—the one we are actively building toward—is to eventually be completely home together on this land, free from outside employment. But for now, we honor the season we are in with complete contentment. Derek goes to his IT career outside the home, and I tend to the hearth, the home, and our children happily, peacefully, and without an ounce of resentment.

On the weekends, our complementary balance comes alive in the physical world. Derek steps into the heavy lifting and outside infrastructure—building my garden fence, carving out new forest trails with the tractor, and splitting firewood to keep us warm. Meanwhile, I remain in my flow within the home—baking fresh sourdough bread, preparing scratch-made lunches, and ensuring we all have clean clothes and a tidy, serene space to rest. We don't do it perfectly, but we find immense grace in honoring these natural polarities.

Going "Rogue" With an 80/20 Balance

Because we respect the natural flow over rigid human dogmas, we live by a beautiful 80/20 rule. We love ancestral wellness and solar medicine, but we also happily drop a commercial Costco rotisserie chicken into our shopping cart on chaotic days, and we hold a deep appreciation for modern Western medicine whenever our family truly needs it.

We use high-tech systems like our Breville espresso machines to protect our daily energy, and Derek uses his professional IT background to host a private, self-hosted home server (Proxmox) so we can run zero-tracking baby monitors and watch curated, low-stimulation media completely free from big-tech surveillance.

A Quiet Refuge for Connected Parenthood

Ultimately, Wild Hearth and Homestead is a space for reclaiming connected parenthood. It is designed to be an intentional, peaceful, slow, and quiet refuge from the modern chaos, loudness, overstimulation, and constant action of today’s society. The internet is noisy enough.

Whether you are looking to teach your toddler how to safely use a real knife at the counter, build a secure smart home without corporate tracking, or master the rhythm of babywearing so you can reclaim your hands while holding your peace—I am here to give you real-world tools, honest reviews, and a heavy dose of grace.

My hope is that when you land on these pages, your shoulders drop, your breath slows down, and you find a gentle space to rest, learn, and remember what it means to live in alignment.

Welcome to the slow path. Let’s tend the hearth together.