How Jennifer Garner's Humble Roots Inspired Her Latest Product Launch

Most of us are used to seeing the fabulous side of Jennifer Garner, but the actress grew up simpler than one would expect. Garner grew up in Charleston, West Virginia, a city with a population of just under 50,000. Garner's mother grew up in an even smaller town—Locust Grove, Oklahoma—where her family ran a farm. Now Garner is utilizing her family's farm roots for a new product in her Once Upon a Farm organic food line. The new product is made from squash grown right on her family's Oklahoma farm!

Garner says her mother grew up during the Dust Bowl Depression, and while there wasn't much growing, she was really happy with her life. Garner's grandparents, Violet and Henry English, made the most of their resources and taught her mother how to make beautiful clothes and delicious recipes from whatever food was available. Garner is thankful her mother brought this savvy, practical lifestyle into her own home as a wife and mother, as it taught Jennifer and her sisters to live with gratitude.

"They always had a couple of cows and a huge kitchen garden that they would can from and live off of through the winter," Garner says. "They always had eggs and milk, and as my mom always points out, they usually had the ingredients for ice cream! When there was sugar, they would always make some. They really didn't have much else."

The family farm is now in Garner's name and run by her uncle Robert and his wife Janet, after she asked him to quit his job and become a farmer.

"I called him and said, 'Uncle Robert, I am just starting this food company, and I wonder if you would mind changing jobs and becoming a farmer," Garner says. "We reached out to a biodynamic farmer in Oregon, and he traveled to Oklahoma to get us on the right path. Our little farm is organic because nothing has ever been there to mess it up."

Farmer Jen and the Giant Squash is the latest addition to Once Upon a Farm's organic food line and is made with squash grown on the English family farm. Their sweet koginut squash is blended with apples, dates, oats, cinnamon and coconut milk for a creamy and nutritious treat for kids and adults alike. Garner shared her recipe via Instagram, so you can enjoy it at home.

Farmer Jen and the Giant Squash is a limited-edition product and only available on the Once Upon a Farm website, but the company has just released a whole line of bottled probiotic and allergen-friendly smoothies that are available wherever Garner's products are sold.

We hope to see more produce from the English family farm in the company's future product launches, and we have a feeling Garner's passion and green thumb will lead to more delicious opportunities.

"It's just a blast to go and plant produce," Garner says. "I got to go plant, tend to and harvest this crop, and to see it in pouches at my local grocery store makes me cry. I'm so proud of it."