We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jerry Houck. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jerry below.
Jerry, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.
After many years in the food/hospitality business, I knew that I wanted to do something that would bring all of my life’s experiences into one place.
Arcadia Farm has been a place where I can grow, envision, experiment, and develop my passions. This 700 acre historic farm in the middle of horse country in Kentucky is the perfect place to diversify my craft, live my life, and enjoy a quieter life.
When I first was introduced to this magnificent property, I fell in love. Once on the farm, it has been a race to develop income producing activities to maintain the property and of course pay the mortgage.
Many had look at this particular tract of land and was overwhelmed with what to do with such a unique home, large farm, and over 200 years of history. I knew the exact thing to do….open it up to the public and create a place where people can learn of the deep Kentucky history, host the most magnificent weddings, retreat from the hustle of city life, and enjoy all the comforts of a healthy home.
Of course this farm has to generate serious income to cover the monthly expenses, let alone staffing, maintenance, special upgrades, and provide an income for myself.
It is my goal to create a home for luxury overnight accommodations, exquisite personalized events, fabulous offerings of locally grown food, and a place to find respite from the mentally overloading world we currently live in today.
Is this unique in nature. Yes, and no. There are places all over that offers this type of retreat to the country. There are none however in our immediate area. My expertise and unique knowledge and view of food, wellness, events, and history is what will catapult Arcadia Farm to become the most sought after agri-tourism location in the region.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
I suppose that I always knew that being an Entrepreneur was my destiny, my passion. From a very early age, I would always think of different little businesses I could do to make money. I came from a poor but very hard working family and that work ethic has been my soul’s force to keep going even when some ventures did not work as expected.
After nearly 30 years working for myself, I have currently landed in the combined area of hospitality, food, and events. I operate a large historical estate farm that specializes in weddings, events, retreats, overnight accommodations, and raise most of our own produce and flowers. Think of luxury agri-tourism with a homesteading twist surrounding a 200 year old historic mansion.
When I was 22, I decided that I wanted a restaurant (seems everyone’s dream at the time was to have a cafe) and bought my very first. At the time, I could hardly boil water, but I had the dream of creating a healthy option for our community of fast food and country cooking. As the years passed, I became a lover of food, entertaining, and service. This passion has been a recurring thread in my life and ventures ever since. Historically, I have had 3 restaurants spanning 3 decades, 2 catering companies with thousands of events under our care, multiple retail stores in an effort to preserve our small downtown area, restored many old homes because I love history, and launched several product on a national scale.
Social media has really been changing my business model and has been the frontier for a very hands-on personality. Now, I look to ways I can take my craft global while maintaining the draw for guests to come to Kentucky and enjoy farm life in person.
Entrepreneurship is not always about creating something new and exciting that has never been seen before, sometimes it is about taking something that is old and established and breathing into it some new life.
This is my new goal and passion today, breathing some new life into a long forgotten farm while entertaining my guests with locally grown beauty. Our mantra at the farm is that while in the presence of history, may your persistent dreams flourish into reality.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
The need for some resilience can often be like a kick in the gut.
In 2017, after over 20 years of successful business, it was apparent that the business atmosphere had changed and that I had not done my due diligence to change along with the needs of our community. I had “sort of” a forced close of all of my businesses and landed in bankruptcy, a very mentally, emotionally, physically, and financially devastating time for me and my family.
With nearly $2 million in debt, I sold my home of 26 years, closed 3 businesses, auctioned off all of my personal belongings, and sold my car. I was still looking at $250,000 in debt, no income, no home or vehicle, and was basically starting over at the age of 46.
I went into a self-imposed shutdown for almost a year trying to manage all the change and figure out where my feet would land. During that year, I worked on my personal health, my mindset, and worked with a business coach to reinvent myself.
It has been 6 years since that life changing pivot. Rest, pivot, focus, and begin again but never give up.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
Following the bankruptcy, I had nothing. There was no funding a new venture, no starting a new business, no going into work everyday, and really no vision of what the future would look like for me.
I had to make a decision. Do I give up and find a regular 9-5 or do I bring my dreams into the presence and learn how to connect in a new way. I still loved food. I still loved entertaining. I still had a wealth of knowledge to share, but who could I share this with now?
I set off on an adventure and the first thing was to get healthy. I changed my diet, started working out regularly, and began studying building a more positive mindset. The second thing was to learn all I could about social media and how to utilize this avenue to market my skills. Third, I wanted to find a new place to call home.
In 2023, I found the farm and began to rebuild a dream under a different set of rules.
I cannot say that we are in full production, yet. We are still doing a ton of vision work, learning farm life, connecting some dots, and still trying to chaotically manage a social media presence. It may take a few years to fully realize all that we may grow into, but I am confident that we will grow to even bigger heights than before.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.historicarcadiafarm.com
- Instagram: @houckjerry @historic_arcadia_farm
- Facebook: @jerry.houck1 @ArcadiaFarmsStanford
- Yelp: Hsitoric Arcadia Farm