Local Love Series: Homegrown Nutrition

This month’s Local Love Series shines the light on fellow nourishing buff and soul sister, Renee Robbins of Homegrown Nutrition. A woman after our own heart, Renee feels most at home when she’s in the kitchen creating delicious homemade meals for her clients or walking us through how to make our very own kimchi. Check out our lovely chat below as Renee was kind enough to share some beautiful insight into her life and career as a Holistic Nutritionist here in Vancouver Island.

Tell us about your brand and what you specialize in?

Hi, I’m Renee, and Homegrown Nutrition is… me! I am a private nutrition coach, a Registered Holistic Nutritionist (2016 grad from the Canadian School of Natural Nutrition) and a teacher. I believe strongly in the power of good food to promote good health. As a coach, I work to educate, motivate and inspire my clients to eat better so that they can feel their best. By helping clients develop their own nutrition knowledge, practical food skills, healthy habits and confidence, I empower them to make good choices that will serve their best interests for LIFE!

Personally, I’m a passionate foodie. I’ve been cooking, preserving and growing food since my childhood and I’ve spent most of my adult life working in the food industry and running my own nutrition consulting and meal-prep business. For fun, I like to get my hands dirty in the garden growing food; I can lose myself for hour experimenting in the kitchen.

Because I know how to cook and I also understand the science of nutrition, I know for a fact that healthy food doesn’t need to be boring, and it should never leave you feeling deprived. I get so much pleasure from creating beautiful, delicious, and healthy meals and my business mission is to teach my clients how to do the same. I help people learn how to eat better so they can feel better.

What is your WHY?

Food is my lifelong passion. Working with food and teaching people is what I love to do, it’s what I’m good at and it’s what I believe is fundamentally important for good health.

In my early 20s I changed the way I ate consistently and thereafter, and I firmly believe that this changed the course of how my own health story unfolded. Looking back, I feel so lucky that I had the extreme benefit of ‘coming to the table’ (hah!) with food skills, a lifetime of experience, and so much confidence working with food. I already had everything that I needed to put nutrition knowledge into action.

Now, working as a coach, I teach people the food skills that they need to repair and revitalize their health. I couldn’t ask for a better job!

Favorite homemade meal?

This is an impossible question! I could never choose one favorite; however, I really love making one-pot meals like soups, stew, curries with seasonal ingredients from my garden.

What keeps you motivated on a daily basis?

I really love what I do. There is no better feeling in the world than teaching people how to help themselves with food and then watching them experience the positive health transformations that come as a result of their efforts. It is pure magic.

Out of all our products, which is your favourite and why?

I love all of the HGLF products that I’ve tried, but what I love the most is the integrity behind everything that you do. From thoughtfully sourcing the best ingredients, to soaking and sprouting (thank you!) so we don’t have to, to always educating and generously sharing company recipes, and supporting other local small businesses (like me & others) your company has earned every single good vibe check in my opinion. If I had to pick a favourite, I do love the pumpkin/chia buns and I was blown away at how good they are after being frozen and then defrosted, those buns are super!

How do you nourish your body?

I try to include as much nutrient-dense real food as I can. Right now, our garden is overflowing with so many organic homegrown goodies we can barely keep up! It is amazing and impossible not to feel nourished when you are plucking fresh peas, berries and greens straight from the garden. 

What words do you live by?

“Health and happiness are homegrown.” I think that people need to stop looking here, there, and everywhere for the next perfect diet, the next amazing supplement, the next breakthrough nutrition study, for “the secret to good health.”

The secret to health and happiness are perhaps closer to home than you might think. I recommend that you get yourself into that kitchen!

For more on Homegrown Nutrition please visit www.homegrownnutrition.ca