Today we’d like to introduce you to Heather Hurd.
Hi Heather, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I’m Heather, the heart and hands behind The Kneady Homesteader and Kneading To Heal.
For years, my kitchen has been the heartbeat of my home… a place where bread rises, jars seal, and meals are stretched. What began as a homesteading journey to nourish my family has grown into a mission to help others find peace, purpose, and preparedness through simple, faith-filled living.
Sometimes your greatest calling is born from your greatest lost.
If someone had told me ten years ago that one day I would be sitting across from grieving women, helping them rebuild a life they never wanted, I would have smiled politely and told them they had the wrong person.
Back then, I was “The Kneady Homesteader”. My YouTube Channel was created back in 2007, but it wasn’t until 2014, during hard financial times, that I was led to turn on the camera and share my journey to learning how to cook from scratch, preserve food, and make meals stretch. It was so hard in the beginning. I felt so overwhelmed, but at the time I was newly remarried, with a blended family that included 7 children and very little money. In 8 years I went from learning to teaching, and in December 2020, earned my Silver Play Button on YouTube with 100,000 subscribers. I was teaching people how to bake bread, preserve food, grow a garden, stretch a grocery budget, build a pantry, and find joy in the simple rhythms of home. I loved creating a place where people could sit with me, learn some practical skills, and build a life centered around family.
Then, in a single moment, everything changed.
In February 2021, after a Valentine’s dinner out with our 8 and 5 year olds, we were hit head on by a drunk driver that instantly killed my husband Matt.
That same crash nearly took my life and the lives of our two youngest children, Mason and Mina. We all endured life threatening injuries, too numerous to list them all. I endured two brain bleeds, broken sternum, collapsed lungs, my hands were severed at the wrists, two crushed feet and a crushed right leg that was nearly amputated at the hip. Overnight, life as I knew it disappeared. Our bodies required years of surgeries, rehabilitation, and recovery. My children lost their Daddy and I lost the closest person to me.
People often say, “I can’t imagine.”
The truth is, neither could I.
There is no manual for learning how to wake up every morning after your world has collapsed. There is no roadmap for teaching your children how to grieve while you are drowning in your own sorrow. There is no timeline that tells you when your heart should finally stop hurting.
For a long time, I believed healing meant leaving Matt behind. I couldn’t have been more wrong. I eventually discovered that healing isn’t about forgetting the people we love. It’s about learning how to carry them forward while allowing ourselves permission to keep living.
That realization changed everything.
Throughout my own healing journey, people from all over the world began to reach out to me. They weren’t asking about bread anymore. They were asking me how I survived. How did I keep going? How did I learn how to smile again? How was I able to fall in love again? How did I rebuild a life that had been completely shattered? I realized God had quietly been preparing me for something I never would have chosen but now couldn’t ignore.
I became a Certified Trauma Informed Grief Coach.
Not because I had all the answers but because I had walked through the valley myself.
Today, through Kneading To Heal, I help grieving women move from simply surviving to truly thriving and living life again. This distinction is important. Grief isn’t something we ever “get over.” Love doesn’t end because someone dies. But suffering doesn’t have to become our permanent identity either. One of the greatest misconceptions about grief is that the depth of our pain somehow measures the depth of our love. I don’t believe that’s true. I believe love can remain while suffering begins to soften. I believe we can honor those we have lost by living fully instead of simply existing and surviving. That message has become the heartbeat of everything I do.
Whether I’m leading a 12-week grief coaching program, speaking to widows, praying with someone online, or simply sharing encouragement through a YouTube video, my goal is always the same:
To remind people that hope is still possible.
Interestingly enough, my two businesses aren’t nearly as different as they appear.
THE KNEADY HOMESTEADER teaches people how to steward their homes.
KNEADING TO HEAL teaches people how to steward their hearts.
One nourishes the body.
The other nourishes the soul.
Both are built on the same foundation. Faith, Purpose, Resilience, Hope and Joy.
Over the years, my YouTube community has become much more than an audience. Many have walked beside me through the darkest chapters of my life. They have watched me grieve. They have prayed with me. They have celebrated my healing. They have watched me remarry. They have watched my children grow. They have become my extended family. That’s something I never take for granted.
If there is one thing I hope people can take away from my story. it’s this:
Your worst day does not get the final word.
The chapters you never wanted to write often become the pages that help someone else survive theirs.
I don’t pretend my story is easy. I still miss Matt every single day. Grief never completely disappears. But it no longer defines me. Instead, it has become the bridge that allows me to walk beside others as they find their own way forward.
Today, I wake up every morning with a deep sense of purpose. Whether I am filming a homesteading video in my kitchen, speaking on stage, coaching women through unimaginable loss in a group, or simply sharing a prayer online, I know exactly why I am here, and why I survived the unsurvivable.
Because sometimes God doesn’t waste our brokenness. Sometimes He transforms it into someone else’s lifeline. If my story encourages even one person to believe that healing is possible, then every difficult mile has been worth walking. And if someone reading this is standing where I once stood… believing joy is gone forever… I hope they hear this:
Your story isn’t over.
Healing doesn’t mean forgetting.
Hope doesn’t betray love.
You are allowed to live again.
Your life has purpose.
And sometimes, that first small step towards healing changes everything.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
I am permanently disabled now which has limited me in what I can do as far as standing in my kitchen for long periods of time a bit. It does offer me more time to sit at my desk and coach, which is a blessing. I am struggling a bit with being discovered and getting the word out. I pray your article will help bless my business/calling a bit. So thank you very much for this opportunity.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
Entrepreneur/Online Influencer and Creator
I am the Owner/Creator of The Kneady Homesteader, where I have spent the last 12 years teaching women how to steward their homes with practical skills like pantry building, cooking from scratch, baking bread, and home food preservation (canning, freezing and dehydrating). But when my husband Matt was killed, I learned the deepest kind of stewardship is of the heart. Out of that loss, Kneading To Heal was born. My grief coaching business where I walk alongside other women as they carry their loss, honoring their loved ones memory while gently nurturing hope and healing. Because grief isn’t a punishment, it’s an invitation.
What has been the most important lesson you’ve learned along your journey?
The most important lesson I have learned is that our greatest pain does not have to become our permanent identity.
For a long time, I believed that if I healed, somehow it would mean I am leaving Matt behind, not realizing he was ahead of me, not behind me. I thought grief was the price I had to pay for love. But over time I realize that isn’t true at all.
Healing isn’t forgetting. It’s just learning how to carry it differently.
I have learned that joy and sorrow can exist in the same heart. You can deeply miss someone while still laughing with your children. You can honor the life that you lost while still embracing the life that you have. Those things are not in conflict… they’re both expressions of love. This lesson has shaped everything I do today. I no longer ask “Why did this happen to me?” and instead ask “How can God use my story to help someone else?”
Pricing:
- KIneading To Heal 12 Week Grief Coaching Program is $599
Contact Info:
- Website: https://kneadyhomesteader.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thekneadyhomesteader/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheKneadyHomesteader
- Twitter: https://x.com/kneadyhomestead?s=11
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheKneadyHomesteader
- Other: https://kneadingtoheal.com
