Carrie Underwood may be one of country musics most recognizable stars, but she is increasingly defined by a life that looks far more like traditional rural America than Hollywood.
After Mondays Disney-themed episode of "American Idol," the 2005 winner and current judge reflected on her familys life on their Tennessee farm, explaining that she and her husband, former NHL player Mike Fisher, are building a home that could be largely independent of modern supply chains, according to Fox News. She described a lifestyle centered on hard work, self-reliance and faith values long cherished in conservative America and often dismissed by coastal elites as relics of a bygone era.
"I think if I had to, I could be self-sustained at home. I love growing things," Underwood told Fox News Digital, noting that with enough time she would "not really need to go to the grocery store for too much." She added, "You know, I love our chickens. We have cows, we have sheep, we have donkeys. We have horses. I have my garden, and it's a great way to connect with the earth. That's my contribution to the family."
Underwood is clear-eyed about the responsibilities that come with managing real land and real animals, acknowledging that the work cannot all fall on her and Fisher while they juggle demanding careers and parenting. "I feel like a lot of other responsibilities are mine," she said, before crediting the professional help that keeps the operation running when she is away.
"We have a farm manager who is wonderful He's taking care of my sheep while I'm gone. He looks after the horses and things like that," she explained, underscoring that the farm is not a celebrity vanity project but a serious undertaking. "We do as much as we can, but I'm obviously not there all the time, and neither is my husband, so we do have help."
Last month, during an appearance on "The View" alongside fellow "American Idol" judges Luke Bryan and Lionel Richie, Underwood described how the farm anchors her family life with Fisher and their two sons, Isaiah and Jacob. In an era when many entertainers blur the line between public persona and private life, she emphasized that she draws a firm boundary.
"I don't bring work home with me," Underwood told the hosts, stressing that the woman on stage and the woman in the barn are not the same. "And it is the opposite of what I do everywhere else, like being on stage and being at home. These are two different people, pretty much, and I love that because it's like they'll come to shows, and they'll see me do what I do, and I feel like they're proud."
Her priority, she said, is that her children know her first as a mother, not as a celebrity brand. "But mom makes dinner," she continued. "I'm usually covered in dirt, or I have farm animals everywhere, or I'm covered in poop or whatever it is. That's mom, and I hope, more than anything, that's what they take away from me and that's what they remember about me. Like she was mom, and every once in a while she goes and gets on stage."
For Underwood, the farm is not a retreat from real life but the place where she feels most fully herself. Away from red carpets and television lights, she leans into the kind of hands-on, practical skills that once defined American households before convenience culture took over.
In addition to raising livestock, she cans food, harvests her own fruits and vegetables, crochets and embraces a farm-to-table lifestyle that many on the left romanticize in theory but rarely practice in full. Her approach reflects a quiet critique of the modern dependency on big-box stores and processed foods, favoring instead the discipline and satisfaction of producing what her family eats.
"I love that our meals, especially dinner. It's like you look on our plate and everything on our plates is something that either came from the garden, or my husband's a hunter, you know. The meat is something that he got," she said during a 2023 episode of "The Dr. Josh Axe Show." For Underwood, this is not a political statement but a practical one, rooted in gratitude and stewardship.
"We eat what we have. We eat seasonally. It all tastes delicious because it's food," she added, summing up a philosophy that runs counter to the hyper-processed, year-round abundance that has become the norm in modern America. In that simplicity, she finds a kind of freedom that no award show can match.
Despite a schedule that would keep most people tethered to airports and studios, Underwood says the quiet of the farm offers a refuge. Last year, she described how a routine trip to her orchard to feed animals and check on fruit turned into a moment of prayer and reflection.
"I love praying out loud in the orchardits so beautiful and peaceful," she wrote, recalling how the serenity was interrupted by an unexpected visitor. "I was about 15 seconds into my chat when I was surprised by a snake in the blueberry bush. Just a rat snakenothing dangerous. But he was thereJUST as I began to pray. It obviously made me thinkabout Godabout the devil."
Her account turned into a meditation on spiritual warfare and the reality of evil, themes often ignored or mocked in secular culture but central to many Christians daily lives. "The devil is always therewatchinglurkingeven when we feel at our closest with God. Being a Christian isnt a free ticket out of trouble. The world is full of evilBUT God is with us. The snake and I kept our eyes on each otherbut I got what I came for, finished my prayer and went about my morninghaving faith that Mr. Snakey and the devil will both be moving alongout of my orchard and out of my way!"
Her commitment to growing her own food has extended beyond hobby status into serious infrastructure. In 2023, Underwood partnered with Epic Gardening, a popular gardening brand and YouTube channel, whose team traveled to her property to help construct one of her greenhouses.
She explained that she and Fisher began working on the garden as soon as they moved to their home outside Nashville, but the 2020 pandemic gave them the time and focus to expand it significantly. "I love the heat here in Tennessee, and it just made me happy to, you know, grow something from nothing," she said, describing the satisfaction that comes from watching seeds turn into sustenance.
"It feels like little miracles every time I get something," she added, capturing the sense of wonder that used to be common in agrarian America before food production was outsourced to distant corporations. For a high-profile entertainer to embrace that older way of life complete with faith, family, hard work and self-reliance is a reminder that the values often derided as flyover culture still resonate, even at the top of the charts.
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