About Me
Let's Get to Know Each Other
I'm Kat
Where to even begin. I guess I’ll start by welcoming you to the hydroponic kitchen! Thanks for stopping by!
My journey with health actually started over 14 years ago, 18-year-old me stood 5ft and 2 inches tall (still do), and was desperate to lose weight from the 190+ lbs I weighed at the time. Through probably less food than I recommend to anyone, I lost 50 pounds and wasn’t really any happier. It took me 2 more years, and gaining half my weight back in my first year of university, to realize the secret to weight loss is self-acceptance. You need to accept yourself for how you are now, or you’ll never be happy 20, 30, 100 lbs lighter.
I went on to finish my bachelor’s degree in kinesiology and had a terrible time finding a job, which led me to start my first website, Your Healthy Beginning. This website focuses on exercise and, of course, food. That website did amazing, reaching over 1 million visitors, all thanks to my good friend Pinterest. But Your Healthy Beginning lacked a purpose. I knew I loved food and teaching others how to cook, but it wasn’t original, and the focus was more on driving traffic than making a difference.
Your Healthy Beginning slowly dropped off my list of priorities as I began my new role at ZipGrow, a hydroponic manufacturer in Canada. Since 2022, I’ve learned literally so much about the world of hydroponics that I started growing my own produce at home. My ZipGarden system from ZipGrow has grown tons of variety of crops, and is the ultimate conversation starter when people come over.
What I realized most was that there are tons of people teaching others how to cook or how to grow food at home, but there aren’t many teaching people how to grow their own food in their kitchen and use the fruits of their labour to make delicious meals. With that, the Hydroponic Kitchen is born.
Here, I want to take you on the journey from seed to table. We’ll learn how to grow your own food at home and use it to make healthy, nutritious meals. With that, let’s get growing (& cooking).
Why Hydroponics?
LET'S TALK
- Hydroponic crops can grow up to 50% faster than traditional crops
- Not to mention, there are zero pesticides in the growing process
- Crops are also more nutritious as they are harvested when needed.
- Lastly, nothing beats something homegrown. Now that’s local!
Let’s clear up one thing: growing food outside is just as great as growing food inside. However, for a girl like me in Canada, growing food outside is only feasible for 4 months out of the year. A system like this enables people living in extreme climates to grow year-round.
Equally as important, the quality of the produce grown in a system like this is WAY better than what you’re getting at the grocery store. The colours are deeper, the flavour is better, and the environmental impact is negligible compared to traditional farming.
Cooking at Home
Back in my naive days, I didn’t understand why people didn’t cook for themselves. I used to think people who didn’t cook were just lazy and didn’t care. The reality of it is that most people are petrified to start cooking because they don’t want to fail. No one wants to waste time and money on something that doesn’t pay off.
At the hydroponic kitchen, I want to teach you how to make your favourite foods, while still making them healthy and nutritious. We’re going to learn some classics like pasta & pizza, and new, delicious dips and stir fries you’ve never had.
Most importantly, I want you to fall in love with the kitchen as I have, and have the confidence to make any recipe, and maybe even come up with your own!