EP118: Fresh, Living Herbs That Last With Suzette Overgaag, Vice President at North Shore Living Herbs

09/23/20 • 19 min

“Our mission is to make every home cooked meal a special occasion.” Suzette Overgaag (11:18-11:20)

Attempting to be a sustainable and healthy household is difficult when items like fresh herbs go bad in just a day or two after buying them. Wouldn’t it be nice to have living, fresh and beautiful herbs that made any meal an occasion, without being rushed to use them?

Suzette Overgaag and her third generation greenhouse grower husband, Leo, started their family farm in Coachella Valley thirty years ago with a barely-there budget and borrowed farming equipment. Today, they have over 10 acres of greenhouse space where they hydroponically grow living herbs that are available for consumers in the produce section of the grocery store.

It all started when the Overgaag’s were growing English cucumbers, but Suzette was frustrated that, when buying cut herbs from the store, they’d wilt or turn brown in just a few days. She dreamed of having an instant herb garden in her kitchen every day, which is exactly what North Shore Living Herbs does for you. They sell their clamshell “mini greenhouse” herbs and potted living herbs that, contrary to popular belief, aren’t meant to be planted, but offer a longer “shelf life”. That way, you can have a beautiful bouquet of herbs sitting on your counter and plan meals weeks in advance without worrying about your herbs going bad.

“It’s about being able to have your product be grown in a way that is friendly to the Earth, obviously, and also to humans that have to work there and grow the plants or product.” Suzette Overgaag (8:07-8:23)

Sustainability was one of the core driving factors of North Shore Living Herbs’ living herbs coming to life (no pun intended), which is why they are the first culinary herb grower in the United States to be certified as a sustainable grower by a recognized third party. They use solar energy and geothermal energy to heat the greenhouse and implement different practices that are good for employees. For example, instead of having employees bend over every day, most of the work is done at waist level, so it’s less wear and tear on the individuals as well as the environment.

North Shore Living Herbs is also the first hydroponic grower to be certified organic and they’ve found solutions to save anywhere between 75% to 90% of water with their crops compared to a cut herb program. It’s important to note they’ve been committed to this focus on sustainability well before it was popular and trendy with consumers. It’s a movement built to last.

North Shore Living Herbs’ mission is to make every home cooked meal a special occasion, something that COVID-19 has actually helped consumers around the U.S. start to focus on.

With the limited options now for eating out or dining in restaurants, more and more households are thinking about how they can make meals a special occasion. We’re cooking together more, eating together more, and not only is that great for North Shore Living Herbs’ business, but it helps drive their mission further across the country.

The wonderful thing about herbs is, even if you aren’t familiar with using them, you can’t go wrong adding them! Suzette doesn’t use recipes at all and uses whatever she has on hand in whatever amount feels right (you don’t have to measure them).

“My favorite thing is actually just using them in salads and herb butter.” - Suzette Overgaag (15:15-15:20)

Put your herbs in a butter and pour over pasta or a delicious grilled steak. Suzette also suggests putting them in cocktails or adding cucumber, mint and lemon to your regular water. You can find tons of amazing recipes created by Suzette’s daughter on their website, as well as details about all the products they offer and where you can find them locally! Visit www.northshore.farms and learn how you can start adding fresh herbs to your home cooked meals and make them a part of any occasion.

How to get involved

Join The Produce Moms Group on Facebook and continue the discussion every week!
Reach out to us - we’d love to hear more about where you are in life and business! Find out more here.

If you liked this episode, be sure to subscribe and leave a quick review on iTunes. It would mean the world to hear your feedback and we’d love for you to help us spread the word!

“Our mission is to make every home cooked meal a special occasion.” Suzette Overgaag (11:18-11:20)

North Shore Living Herbs’ mission is to make every home cooked meal a special occasion, something that COVID-19 has actually helped consumers around the U.S. start to focus on.

“My favorite thing is actually just using them in salads and herb butter.” - Suzette Overgaag (15:15-15:20)

How to get involved

Join The Produce Moms Group on Facebook and continue the discussion every week!
Reach out to us - we’d love to hear more about where you are in life and business! Find out more here.

If you liked this episode, be sure to subscribe and leave a quick review on iTunes. It would mean the world to hear your feedback and we’d love for you to help us spread the word!

Previous Episode

EP117: The Abundance Of Hawaii Creates A New Industry With Bella Hughes, Co-founder and President of Shaka Tea

“How could we find a way back home?” Bella Hughes (6:50-6:52)

Shaka Tea is 100% plant based, project non-GMO verified, sustainably sourced and created from Mamaki, the rarest herbal tea in the world.

Native Hawaiian Bella Hughes is a trailblazer in the best way possible. With a former profession in the non-profit and contemporary art world, Bella took a sharp left turn when she co-founded Shaka Tea with her husband from a desire to, not only share the wealth and deliciousness Hawaii has to offer, but help do the most good possible to help the community and economic growth of Hawaii.

When traveling around the world or living in the UAE with her husband, Bella would always look for goods from Hawaii in grocery stores and could find consumer product goods, but they didn’t have authentic ingredients from Hawaii and the companies were never founded there.

During her second pregnancy, she was drinking tons of Mamaki which is naturally caffeine-free and similar to a mild rooibos in flavor. She’d make a fruit puree with many of the same fruits she loved from her homeland, like passionfruit, guava and mango, and would make a huge jug of Mamaki tea mixed with it, offering her tastes from home, a delicious, pregnancy friendly drink, and just a touch of sweetness.

“This tastes like something I would normally say no to. It has zero percent juice, zero calories, zero grams of total sugar, zero carbohydrates... it’s amazing.” Lori Taylor (12:23-12:35)

There are plenty of teas on the market, but they fall into two categories: sweetened, which in most cases if you were to drink them daily, you’d put 15 pounds of sugar in your body in one year, and unsweetened. Bella saw the opportunity to bring her Shaka Tea to market.

It didn’t have sugar in it (the company uses Monk Fruit), she could support small, local farmers in Hawaii, could boost the Hawaiian economy with a product that’s for everyday use (versus the expensive coffees and macadamia nuts), and provide it at an affordable price (suggested retail price is $1.98 to $2.49 in the U.S.).

Bella and her husband put a huge leap of faith into their idea by putting their life savings into 18,000 bottles without a single account signed and three SKU’s to start with. They built Shaka Tea from the bottom up, spending days driving around the main island, signing accounts and bringing in a cute baby or toddler when needed for extra support!

The supply chain for Shaka Tea has been built from the ground up.

Mamaki is traditionally foraged for when hiking or grown with a small herb garden at home. There hasn’t been mass production of Mamaki, which is the host plant for the island’s endangered pollinator Kamehameha butterfly, so Bella provides her 14 farmers seeds to plant on their 2-5 acre farms and pays them a premium price while taking care of all the drying and processing.

Unfortunately, the other ingredients in Shaka Tea aren’t available locally, but are all fair trade and sustainably sourced. Shaka Tea is more than just a healthy drink to bring about cultural awareness, it is the life source of a brand new industry which is revitalizing Hawaii’s economy and stimulating long-term economic growth.

“Our hope is that we can be a model for future businesses in Hawaii to continue that commitment to small farmers, sustainable agriculture practices and economic growth.” Bella Hughes (18:55-19:06)

Shaka Tea currently has four iced tea flavors, Pineapple Mint, Mango Hibiscus, Lemon Lokelani Rose and Guava Gingerblossom, and three herbal tea blends, Sunrise, Blue Magic, and Sunset, that are great for those kicking a caffeine habit. Shaka has won the American Masters of Taste Gold Superior Taste Award and is the second fastest growing business of Hawaii.

Make sure to check out www.shakatea.com and use promo code “SHAKA20” to get 20% off your online order!

How to get involved

Join The Produce Moms Group on Facebook and continue the discussion every week!
Reach out to us - we’d love to hear more about where you are in life and business! Find out more here.

If you liked this episode, be sure to subscribe and leave a quick review on iTunes. It would mean the world to hear your feedback and we’d love for you to help us spread the word!

Next Episode

EP119: Intuitive Eating And Healthy Body Image For Children With Dr. Yami, DO, MPH, MS, FAAP, And Founder Of Veggie Fit Kids

“Our children are learning by watching us. We are so important to what they believe and what they think about themselves.”

Dr. Yami (19:28-19:36)

Dr. Yami’s tagline is “pediatrician on a mission”, and for good reason. This powerhouse mom, pediatrician, public speaker and author wants children to grow up with a healthy body image and relationship with food that sets them up for success.

Dr. Yami Cazorla-Lancaster knew she needed to find better solutions for her patients when so many of them were coming in with allergies, chronic abdominal pain and signs of not feeling well based on their dietary choices. Not only was Dr. Yami noticing issues with patients that just weren’t right for pediatrics, she also has been keenly aware of the body image and body confidence issues kids struggle with.

Going through her own struggles starting at eight years old, Dr. Yami began a dieting roller coaster that lasted a few decades and created disordered eating that interfered with her wellbeing, mental health and stole productivity from her life. Even her own son started dealing with the same issues, like wanting a flatter stomach at the age of six, so Dr. Yami started learning about plant-based nutrition, intuitive eating and lifestyle medicine.

“I really want my patients, I want my children, I want myself, I want to feel good about the choices I’m making and I want to feel confident in my body.” Dr. Yami (6:24-6:31)

It’s bad enough that most adults are worried about “losing those last 10 pounds” and trying to control what our bodies look like, but the fact of the matter is our kids are being trained to think this way starting at a young age. This is why Dr. Yami has started teaching her patients the benefits of intuitive eating.

Intuitive eating, originally founded by Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch, is quite simply “honoring hunger and satiety”.

Children have their own intuitive eating intelligence that gets chipped away when we try to change their natural eating habits. Kids don’t want to sit down for long, European-like meals because they’re filled with curious energy and would rather be exploring or playing. As parents, we tend to get anxious that our kids aren’t eating enough when they sit down for dinner and only take a few bites from their plate. So, what do we do? We create rules around food, we bribe them, and encourage them to ignore their intuitive eating habits.

This may calm your anxiety as a parent, but it only paves the way for a child to have disordered eating and an unhealthy relationship with their food and body. You may be wondering how you can get your child to eat more fruits and vegetables instead of unhealthy snacks.

“The only way to learn to like a food is through consistent and repetitive exposure.” Dr. Yami (28:31-28:38)

Dr. Yami’s advice is to keep exposing your child to healthy, nutritious, whole fruits and vegetables, but don’t force them. Think about how you acquired the taste for alcohol or coffee, for example. These drinks have very strong, bitter flavors, but somehow we end up enjoying them. That was because we had a deeper buy-in for liking them and it happened over repetitive exposure.

Know that your role as a parent is to decide what to serve, where to serve it and when. The role of your child is to decide how much they are going to taste today, if at all. It might take up to twenty times of putting broccoli on your child’s plate until the decide to taste it! Let go of the outcome and know that you aren’t a failure if your child doesn’t eat what you put on their plate for the first, second, or even tenth time.

We also have a responsibility as parents to develop a healthy body image ourselves. Our kids are watching us constantly and pick up on certain cues that tell them we don’t have a good relationship with our body. Every time you say something negative about your body, or constantly check yourself in the mirror, your child thinks they need to do the same thing. If it’s hard to create a positive conversation around your body, keep it neutral to start! Know that you don’t have to be perfect as a parent and you don’t have to have a body shaped by society’s standards.

Make sure to pick up a copy of Dr. Yami’s book, A Parent’s Guide to Intuitive Eating: How to Raise Kids Who Love to Eat Healthy, on Amazon and visit www.veggiefitkids.com for more helpful tips on how to encourage healthy body image and a love for fruits and vegetables with your children.

How to get involved

Join The Produce Moms Group on Facebook and continue the discussion every week!
Reach out to us - we’d love to hear more about where you are in life and business! Find out more here.

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