The choice Martha Stewart credits is moving to Turkey Hill, a farmhouse in Westport, Connecticut, and making its renovation, gardens, and everyday life her project. In the Netflix documentary Martha, she reportedly says the property helped shape her into “Martha Stewart Homemaker”—not that it was the only possible path her life could have taken.
What choice does Martha Stewart say shaped her?
Stewart’s answer, as quoted in Madeline Buiano’s October 30, 2024, Yahoo Entertainment article, is Turkey Hill: the Westport farmhouse she moved to with her family and the work she undertook there. The article attributes this reflection to Stewart in the documentary Martha: “If I hadn’t had Turkey Hill, I would not be me right now.”
She also reportedly makes clear that this is a personal account of how she became herself, not a claim that Turkey Hill was the only route to a meaningful life: “But I would’ve been somebody. I would’ve been somebody else. I just wouldn’t have been ‘Martha Stewart Homemaker.’”
What happened at Turkey Hill?
A farmhouse became a hands-on project
The article says Stewart moved to Connecticut in 1971 with her daughter, Alexis, and then-husband, Andrew, after an eight-year career as a Wall Street stockbroker. They settled at a farmhouse on Turkey Hill Road South in Westport. Stewart took on its renovation as a do-it-yourself undertaking, developed gardens, raised farm animals, and acquired nearby land.
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In the documentary, as the article reports her words, Stewart recalls being drawn to the work: “I really liked the idea of fixing up a property, of expanding a property, of growing things.” She says the experience helped her recognize an interest in homemaking: “Those early days on Turkey Hill Road made me realize that I really did enjoy homemaking.”
Entertaining grew into a business and a book idea
Hosting friends at Turkey Hill connected the home project to Stewart’s next work. She reportedly describes discovering that she enjoyed creating “fanciful, lovely, evocative kinds of entertaining” and asking herself, “Why not start a catering business?”
According to the article, a publisher who attended a party at the farmhouse suggested that Stewart write a book. That encounter led to the concept for Entertaining. The account presents a sequence—restoring and cultivating a home, hosting there, then turning that experience into catering and a book—not a claim that one decision by itself explains an entire career.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What does the documentary add to this account?
Buiano’s article identifies Martha as a Netflix documentary directed by RJ Cutler and describes it as drawing on Stewart’s interviews, people in her circle, and private archival material. These details and the quotations above are reported in the 2024 secondary article; they have not been independently verified here against Netflix materials or the film itself. The article supports the narrower conclusion that Stewart credits Turkey Hill as formative in her own story.
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Stewart’s reported reflection also reaches beyond the farmhouse: “Living is a subject that can be covered over and over and over again for years to come. Living is limitless.” In context, Turkey Hill is where she says she discovered a way of working and creating around home life and entertaining.
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