Half Baked Harvest entrepreneur Tieghan Gerard on authenticity

You know, I think, and this is something that you have done beautifully, Like it's all about connecting with your community exactly and really understanding and hearing them and listening to them and giving them just more of what they want.

So it's great.

Earlier this week, I attended the Council of Fashion Designers of America Awards called the CFDA, and there I met a young, very hard working creator of Half Baked Harvest, the popular food blog and website, Tagan Gerard. We were on the floor right, Yes, we were on the floor, and we were on the floor where all the tables were set for the four hundred and fifty guests. Everybody buzzing around, looking at each other and taking photographs, and I immediately recognized Teagan.

I think she recognized me. I certainly did.

Having just read that big article in the New York Times. I was so happy to see you in person and to invite you because Tea lives in Colorado, in the snowy mountains, and she's not always in New York and not always.

Available to talk.

So I just thought it was opportune if you were going to be around long enough to come in. So we talked about building a business in the world of food and media.

So welcome to my podcast.

Well, thank you and thank you for having me.

Well, it's really a delight.

And I was not following you, by the way on Instagram, but I knew about you, and everybody who works for me follows you. And Tea has I think five point six or five point four million followers on Instagram and many, many, many more fans than that. And she writes a blog. She has three gorgeous cookbooks published by my publisher, Clarkson Potter. I've been publishing with Clarkson Potter since nineteen eighty two. When did you write your first book?

It was twenty seventeen, I want to say, And yeah they've been and you know, the first one wasn't as popular as but they've gotten more popular, which is unheard of for cookbooks.

No, no, no, it's not because because you're in a different time. Yeah, I mean you're in a different time. You are in the time of social media, which you understand extremely well obviously with your chiktoks and your and your Instagrams and all the other fantastic social media that you create. Books become more popular as you become more popular.

Well really, really and truly.

And when I wrote my first book in nineteen eighty two, there was no social media.

Someone said, you have what was like a hundred.

I'm working on my hundredth book right now. I cannot. This is for you a good inspiration. I hope.

I'm working on my fourth and I'm okay.

So it's hard. It's a lot.

Those books are so much work.

Martha tell me about it.

We just finished the last day of photography on the hundredth book last week.

Well that's the fun part.

Oh.

We had two days and we had to do something like twelve different recipes and difficult recipes, and boy, oh boy, the days were like twelve hours and everybody was pretty tired at the end of the two days. And it was in my home kitchen, so it's like invasive. But I love the people I'm working with so and the pictures are utterly beautiful. So it's just a hundred of my favorite recipes. Love that in celebration of a hundred of creating one hundred books.

That's amazing.

You're gonna like it. What's your deadline on the new one.

I'm up against it right now very much. It should be in to be very honest with you.

One is called one is the original just half Bay Tarvist, and then we have half a Tarvist super simple, and then half a Tarvist every day.

Oh so good.

Yeah, you know, I'm not a big like theme.

Just like to create recipes that people really like to make and enjoy and eat.

Right.

So, you've had a success, a phenomenal success with Half Baked Harvest, your brand and your work. Tell us a little bit about where your company started and when and where you're going.

Yeah, so we are going on eleven years. I started after I had just turned nineteen. I was kind of in a place. I had graduated early from high school with an associate's degree.

What does associates mean?

It means two.

Years of college basically.

So I took college courses through the local community college while I was in high school for both high school and college credit. Okay, I was not a big school girl. I don't do well in a classroom setting. So I really wanted to get through it. And I always said I've always been a very creative person, really loved to use my hands, like put things together, make things beautiful. I always said I was going to go into fashion. I wanted to be a stylist. That's really what I wanted to do.

Well, that's why you were at the CFDA Awards.

I felt very honored and lucky to get to be there.

Who's your favorite design?

Yes, well I love Kate. I love anything and wearing a Kate sweater right now.

So keep going on your story. I want to. I want Oh.

So, Yeah, I had moved to La. I was going to go to school out there. I had been accepted to the Fashion and Student Design and Merchandising.

I got a job right away.

I was working the phones at Barbazon, acting, modeling and talent, being a little call girl. And you know what La three months in La and I was I said, no, I La is not for me.

I can't do this. Definitely had a little bit the traffic.

Oh my god, the traffic, all of it. It's it's it's at eighteen years old, it is. I wasn't ready for it.

And you were by yourself.

I was by myself.

Where were you living?

I was living in West Hollywood, so not not going.

In your own apartment? Yeah, oh by yourself? Yeah, oh that's pretty hard on an eighteen years.

Old Well, you know, especially for someone who this was my first time away from home. So I was just a deer in headlights basically. And so I came home and I did the very expensive school to attend, you know, very expensive the tuition. I didn't want to start and then have a freak out and then not be able to finish and then, you know, waste all that money. I'm from a family of eight or I've ate eight kids and one of eight kids, so you know, yeah.

You have to include mom and dad. It's too much, it's too much.

But so I that is when I came home, and I was, you know, feeling very lost, like what do I do? And I Am not the type of person that is going to sit and sit still.

And it was really my mom.

I had started cooking for my family when I was in probably like six or seventh grade. Uh really just out of a necessity to get dinner on the table at like more of a normal hour.

We would eat at nine thirty.

Very late, right, Oh my goodness.

My dad, you know, worked nine to five and then he would go to the gym afterwards, and he was the cook of the family, and my mom was the baker. She just we would have talkative cookies ready to go before dinner was a thought. So I started cooking, and I just started, you know, like cooking the things that we had in our house. And I just then when

And so I just never stopped and I.

Did it was your mom an organized homemaker. I mean, eight kids is a lot of kids.

My mom's incredible, but she's a she is a chaos and she loves the chaos. She's incredible. She's very organized. She did and she was so organized.

How far I mean living up in the mountains, no.

So I'm from Cleveland originally, So my mom was actually very organized about her shopping. Her my dad would have a date night every week and they would go to our local grocery store. It was called Marks, and it was like the discount grocery store, and they would get everything for the week, all the staples, and my mom would stock up, like she had backups for her backups, so she never ran out of like her chocolate chips. She's very important chocol chips. So she was very organized

And so in the lineup of eight, where are you number four?

You're number four. I'm very in the middle, okay. And the three older ones.

Are boys, and they are our age range is thirty.

Eight years old to three. Oh wow, yes, my three is the youngest.

Three is the youngest.

My parents adopted a little guy about three years ago. My parents got married at my mom was nineteen and my dad was like twenty two, I think.

So they've been together for ever a long time, yes, since my mom was sixteen.

So you're cooking now for the family.

And when did you get the bright idea that you should start?

The idea was my mother's bright ideas?

Yeah, she said, why don't you. My mom's a very in the now type of woman. You know, she was a very tech savvy back then, and this is back in twenty twelve of like, you know, blogs were really just becoming a thing. Instagram, believe it or not, wasn't even a thing, right, Oh, no, it wasn't. No, it wasn't a thing. Really, it was just getting going or not to talk. Twitter was more of the thing and

Like I say, did she read my blog? I don't know what I.

Read back then I read I did, Like I'm sure that I did. I did, you know, like a little bit of Rachel Ray and all the food, you know, all the food and our people. So yeah, I did. I did it all.

We're still doing our blog and you guys have an incredible website. Oh yeah.

And I love my blog because it's like a magazine article every day and it really does involve what we do each and every day on the farm. And and yours is, uh, yours is like that too.

Though.

You're the way you the way you write is very evocative and very personal, and people like that they like to get into you lifestyle.

Yeah they do, and you have found that you have found that out very nice.

No, I think and this is something that you've done beautifully. Like it's all about connecting with your community exactly and really understanding and hearing them and listening to them and giving them just more of what they want and making them feel like you're your friend, and like I do, I feel like I have a very large friend group online, you know.

So it's great. So who is your audience and what is your reach?

Yeah, we have an incredible audience range where we actually have, you know, an age range from say what, we have lots of kids too that read the site, which is crazy, and I have moms and dads that come up chain and say, my my daughter watches your stories every single morning. She just loves you and it's like it melts my heart.

Yeah, so what differentiates you from your other colleagues in this in this area do you think?

You know?

I always there's a lot of food people out there. There's a lot of food people out there.

I've always really approached everything with my own I like my own twists. So I think something that I do very unique is that, Yeah, recipes, you know, they can all look very similar. There's only so much you can do with you know this and that. But what I love to do with recipes is take them and say, well, what could what could be different about this? What can I make that makes us feel really special or really delicious?

I do all the video content for it.

I do it all, and I look at it as in a three sixty way like that. I actually start with the visual piece because I am so visual.

I love to build a mood.

I love to build the mood, and like with holiday recipes, like we want to have a Papa collar, we want them to be delicious. So maybe we're adding some pomegranates to our salad or whatever. There's always something about my recipes that, you know, there's like a Teagan specialness to it, because I really love to make them look.

Beautiful, just as beautiful as they're going to taste.

So I do that visually and by adding things like, yeah, like a Papa pomegranate or Krispy pershudo.

So talk about pomegranate for one second. How do you extract the seeds from a pomegranate.

I've tried every trick in the book, So whacking it on the back of the pomegranate doesn't work for me.

With like the back of a wooden spoon. Have you seen that one?

Oh that's my favorite? Really too? Oh yeah, oh it doesn't. You have to cut the pomegranate correctly to make it work.

How are you cutting yours?

Okay, So you take off just the very top, huh, and you take off the very bottom, that funny little thing that sticks out, Yeah, just out cutting through any seeds.

Just take that out.

Then with the tip of your knife, you score it into quarters. Then you break the quarters apart, and then you hold the cut side down the flesh and the seeds in the palm of your hand, and then you do take the back of a large wooden spoon over a bowl and you keep pounding that quarter of the pomegranate. Every single seed comes out perfect and perfectly.

Oh no, it works. It works. I'm going to do it.

I'm going home and I'm going to do another video because if you haven't seen.

That, well I've seen it.

But they're doing it wrong. Some some some people cut it wrong. If Martha says that if you cut it into quarters, it really.

Works, yeah, I've seen it only done in half.

Oh yeah, see that's much harder. And you have little tiny hands. Tegan bither Way is a slight girl, and you know you have to have brute strength with a if you take a half. No, no, I'm sure you're strong, but but a half is hard. So that's why I cut it into quarters, okay, and it really want.

To give this a try because I just cut it. I also cut it into quarters.

I caught it the same way you cut it, but I just sit there and pop them all out. Sometimes I'll put it in water, but why water.

See I don't understand the water things save them from popping. O.

Mine never pop.

Well, I'm going to give your try.

And I eat it pomegranate a day during the season. Oh, I just ate a pomegranate this morning. Oh it's so full of antioxidants and potassium and all the good things that one needs.

It's so good for you.

They're absolutely delicious.

Oh they are. They're so good.

I don't eat the seeds though, I just chew them and then I spit the pulp out.

Oh. Interesting, Yeah, don't eat the seeds. You don't have to.

That sounds like a pain.

No, it's so good, okay, And I once.

Done it, don't you just drink the pomegranate juice?

Then? Well, how am I going to get the juice? Well, you can buy it at the grocery store. That's not the same as eating a fresh pomegranate.

Well, I've never spit the seeds out. That sounds like oh yeah.

Oh, it's so much tastier just to to chew the seeds and get all that delicious juice and then spit out the seeds. And I get all my pomegranates from palm wonderful.

Do you know palm? When people do, they are the best they are.

The best, and I love I love looking at Instagram for hacks like how to how to get the seeds out of there and that.

Actual are you on TikTok?

You're on TikTok of course, someone TikTok talks about it with the hacks.

What's your favorite Instagram site besides your own. I'm not a scroller. I don't scroll, no, no, but you must have somebody that you like.

I I follow like my family. I follow Lauren Bossic, She's getting be Confidential. I think that they are incredible with their businesses. I love getting business. I love listening to their podcasts. I think that she's amazing, and so is Michael.

I love them. I follow on a podcasts.

I like Marry on a huge I think she's incredible her and Summer Fridays. I don't know if you're familiar with Summer Fridays, but incredible brands. I love following people that have built their own brands and have also built their own product. You know, we're really working on product right now. So it's UH love to learn about business.

I really love to do good.

That's that's that's that's the next step in building your brand. Yeah, we have to get into the New York Times article, which was was so fun. Yeah, and they published a story by Julia Moskin, a big story about you, and which really brought you probably even more followers.

And did it you know, I don't, I don't quite know it was. It was definitely, it's definitely being talked about.

I don't know. I don't know.

But for the most part, it was a flattering article about your ability to attract people who are interested in food, who are looking for everyday kinds of recipes. And then she had her stuff to say. But I lived through that. You'll come across that during your career and you just have to, you know, just kind of ignore.

It, honestly what I do good. It was very disappointing that a New York Times.

Journal did she come to interview you. She came into my home.

It's been a long process for that article. I had a two hour meeting with her in December, and she came into my home in September and did more of an interview and then the article came out. It was a little bit and that long very surprising that a New York Times journalists would be quoting Reddit. Don't see that as very professional at all. But you know, like you said, it's.

It's definitely highlighted the business.

And I think a lot of people have seen the negativity that was said and how it was very unfairly said and a little childish so and not something you would think of a New York Times journalist.

You know what New York Times should be crediting Reddit.

Let's be honest.

You know, everybody is looking for readers, and everybody is looking for a sensation, and everybody is looking for the edge.

The title was very like it was clickbait.

I don't even remember it was.

Half baked tarvist and controversyal oh, oh, so it was.

It was very much clickbait.

Well that didn't That didn't make me read it. What made me read it was it was about a young woman who's entrepreneurial and really being very successful in the food world.

Well, thank you. I have a lot of people that I've been lucky enough to meet and connect with. But you know what, I'm not upset that I did it. I think it highlights, like you said, it highlights a business. I'm you know, maybe I wouldn't be here talking to you today. I don't know, and I think that you know, a lot of people have seen overnight success with TikTok and things like that, and it's been eleven years.

So slow study builds.

No, No, it really has, and it's been and you worked very hard obviously, so you like I have never had formal culinary training.

No, And I think that's been something that has been to my favor because I just do not look at things with a set of rules.

I just do what.

Sounds delicious to me, what I think will look pretty, what I think my audience will really enjoy. I'm not afraid to pair cheese with fish. You know all of the things.

Well, that's good. And so you've developed your own personal style and that's sort of what I did too. I never I never had a cooking listen, but I read a lot, and I'm sure you do, and I do you read a lot?

I actually don't read a lot, but I have. I am a podcast girl, and I love to listen to podcasts because reading is something that I'm very slow at and it's very tricky for me and I lose my concentration.

But which podcasts are you listening to about food?

Oh?

I don't listen tocast, So you don't, Okay, No, I listened to like business podcasts.

Okay, well that's good. Yeah, you learn a lot. So what's your process for developing a new recipe?

So I kind of, like I said, I sort of work backwards.

I kind of start with, for instance, like easy Thanksgiving entertaining recipes. So I know people need ease, and I know people want to look beautiful, and I know they probably want to make it ahead, So I kind of start with that and how wait, you know what recipes

Do you where do you get your pershutto whole foods? Uh huh.

We don't have specialty grocery stores where I am So's.

Whole, So you're using grocery store ingreedy absolutely, and all your recipes all so it's very accessible.

Very accessible, which I think has been really really helpful for people. And I always like to give substitutions. If they don't use red wine within their cooking, try using pomegranate juice. You know, there's a lot of that now, especially with alcohol, people not using it.

But you're not a vegetarian.

No, no, okay, we're we're in a red meat face. I'm excited about cooking with more red meat. My brothers are very happy about that.

Oh oh can I can I say? You're about your one brother?

Is it red? Oh? Redmand Of course, Redman is to talk.

About Olympic snowboarder gold medalistes and what year was that?

It was the Korea, South Korea. One excited, The whole family went right there.

Yes it was, it was.

He was like eighteen or seventeen at the time, so he was a little little thing, but he's a very talented snowboarder.

And yeah, he took home gold that year.

Oh boy, it's so amazing. Yes, I'm friends with Sean White. He's he's such an incredible athlete and I had him on my show a long time ago when he was at the height.

Of his Shawn's done incredible.

Oh and now he has a wonderful business with snowboards and snowboarding clothing.

I know, and he's an incredible entrepreneur.

I always tell Red you need to go you need to follow Seawan's route because he's doing it right. He is building a business and.

Staying in shape and being an educator too to the youth. To the youth, yes, who love to get out on those slopes. Yeah, are you a scarer?

I can get down that hill on a snowboard, yes, But I am nothing like Red.

Oh so no, No, you're all snowboarders in the family.

All snowboard We all started on skis. The first four started on skis, and then after that I was snowboarding straight.

So my grandchildren I have two, eleven and twelve, they are skiers, okay, and they are going to Hokkaido to ski. They can't wait because they love Japanese food and they think that they're going to have a great time in Hokkaido.

Oh, Japan is Red's favorite place.

He's so I'm sure he's skied where they're going to be skiing.

And I went.

I went to Nagano for the Olympics. Yeah, for the Winter Olympics.

That was incrediblext ones are in Milan, so I'm like, read, you better make it to that one.

Okay, you want to go to Milan. Oh, yes, it's going to be beautiful. Yes, yeah. What are those on the cover? It's a parogi. I love a part. Are you Polish in any way?

No, but I'm from Cleveland, so it's a large there's a large Polish community.

Polish.

And one of my favorite hundred recipes is my mother's potato pirogi.

The potato perrogi is my face?

Is this potato?

This is sweet potato?

Oh, sweet potato. Okay, So you've changed the.

Rest of a little bit, switched it up a little bit, which and it's so delicious.

What's the dough?

I do Greek yogurt? I think sour cream is traditional.

The dough is so simple, It's like it's like Greek yogurt, A couple cups of flour and maybe an egg, I think, and then like a pinch of salt. E mix it all together, and that you want to sit thirty minutes, soft and fluffy.

Yeah, you want to sit thirty minutes? And how do you make it?

I'm going to I'm going to Cary. I'm going to check yours out. Hope you enjoy.

Try the sweet potato filling one time.

I will. I like it. I like cabbage, not sour krout.

So I've never done that, Like I grew up my phone unfortunately, just grew up with missus Tea's. But my favorite, my favorite or the potato Cheddara.

My mom and I would do it after school all the time.

Yeah, I like the sweet cabbage. So you steam the cabbage, then you have to squeeze all the moisture out of the cabbage, and then you have to grind the cabbage and mix it with cream, cheese and butter and pepper.

Well, I love cheese, butter and pepper.

You would love that filling. It's not easy, but it is.

Like Brussels routes instead of the cabin I don't know, is that too, because I always think of cabbage is similar to.

A Brussels bra They're all of the same family.

But traditional meat I thought you do, I thought you.

Do is generally either like sauer kraut potato, or you could do meat. We've never want to meet. We have never made meat, not in our family. But but it was the potato meat too. I love it and it's it's so good. I like a reheated and butter just in a pan. Oh yeah yeah, but you boil them.

Right yeah yeah.

So a lot of times like they'll just make a huge batch.

And it's my brother's favorite when I make homemade progy and.

I everybody wants to be at my house when because.

You know it's consuming, it's is it is?

So you post recipes pretty much daily. Would you do today?

You know what? Actually?

Today is a round up of all of our Thanksgiving recipes?

Oh yea, So, how are you roasting your turkey this year? Okay?

So I have this is what I want to get you. Well, I know I'm afraid. Have you ever roasted your turkey with cheese closs soaked in butter?

I think we invented that recipe. I think that's the Martha Stewart and my positive that no darling, okay, no, that's been in that's been in our magazine. It's called roast turkey one oh one. Okay, well, so and white wine, white wine and butter.

I do chicken broth, but white wine may be so much better.

Always try it with white wine and butter, and the cheese cloth is draped over the roast the bird.

And then secret what it's I think it's a secret to making a perfect Oh.

No, I have a new one this year, boy, I have a new one, even better and easier.

Oh what is it? Nothing's easier than this easier. It's a parchment wrap turkey.

You butter the whole bird after you stuff it, butter it with soft butter all over.

Well I do, Oh, I love, I love stuffing cooked in the bird.

It cooks unevenly.

Oh no, it cooks perfectly.

And then you wrap the bird in big sheets aparchment. But you have to find the big sheets of parchments. Sure, and staple shut. Staple it shut, okay.

And roast it.

In two hours the bird is almost perfectly cooked. This is for like a fourteen pound bird. Two hours, two hours and a half. Uncover it. Then the skin crisps like a peking duck. All right, well, no basting.

I don't base my turkey either. Well no, and then cheese goth. You have to baste it all the time.

I didn't base when it works perfect?

Oh no, you still have to you should basee it. It's even better.

How much butter. Do you soak yours in?

Well? You use usually if the if.

The cheese clu is probably probably about maybe four or five sticks of butter.

Oh my god, and a whole bottle of wine.

Wow, I'm only doing a stick of butter.

I need to your recipes, look up, look up my recipes, and maybe I need to try the parchment.

What are your sides for Thanksgiving? I want to hear the side.

I love a traditional Thanksgiving, but like I do crispy stacked potatoes.

I think this year I did.

I saw that recipe so good, so I haven't tasted.

I love to do a croissant stuffing. I think it's really on me to like switch up the bread.

This year.

I'm doing a wild rice and kale casserole dish with like caramelized onions.

Onto I sound cristy. That sounds good.

I'm going to do some scallop sweet potatoes always rolls. We're going to do popovers. And because the popovers are my mom's say, very good. So what do you cook them in? I could them in and pop over pants over?

Yeah?

Yeah, I have a metal like a metal one.

I saw them cooked in coffee mugs recently I've done that too.

And they look so good. I've never done that.

Sometimes you got to improvise and use what you got, you know, And I'm.

A queen of that and what kind of pies.

So I am not the biggest pie girl. I'm not the biggest pumpkin pie. I don't really enjoy pumpkin pie, and neither is my family.

Try my pumpkin filo. Okay, oh, I saw that in your magazine. It gorgeous.

It is so good. You just made that for my hundred favorite recipes.

I remember when that came out.

No, no, it's it's an old recipe, but I remember one of my favorite beautiful Yeah, it has star annis and I love five spice in the pumpkin.

You'll notice in a lot of my photos you'll see a star. I say star a niece. Oh well, I can't pronounce.

It doesn't matter.

So you have you're going to have a nice Thanksgiving. It sounds delicious. Are you going to be home with your family? I'm actually cooking for everyone.

Yeah, photograph it? Can you post it? Well? I mean it's like you don't do that.

You don't know that, So, like I already posted my Thanksgiving many on the.

Site right now.

Okay, I will look for it.

I don't think it's as fancy as yours is going to be.

So how do you balance your authenticity while following social media trends?

I think you'll notice about my rescues. I don't really follow a ton of trends. I just kind of do what's exciting me at the moment. I'm not a trend girl. They come and they go in a lot of the I've seen so many trends with TikTok and I'm like, that doesn't even make sense.

Have you ever have you ever watched Foody China eight eight eight? I don't think so. Do you ever cook Chinese food? Yeah?

Oh, watch Foody China eight eight eight? Okay it is. It's my favorite favorite Instagram Okay. And it's funny because he says, you now take some water from the Mississippi River and has he is a funny, little sticky But the food is delicious and uh and it's this guy. I've been trying to reach him to do the podcast with me and I can't find what is it Foody China eight eight eight? I don't know, but it's like yours. Yours is fun too. It's fun to watch. It's fun to watch people.

Put a lot of pressure around cooking and it just it doesn't need to be that way.

How did it work in the beginning? How frequently did you publish a recipe?

So I think that's something that's been really key for building the business is our consistency. I from day one, for whatever reason, prioritize consistency, and I posted every single day.

I was very consistent.

Everyone knew I was going to give them a new recipe, and I continued that and I still continue that today. So I think it's really been keeping up that consistency in building the trust and the loyalty with the community. And like I said, these people really do feel like my friends, and I love to be able to help them get dinner on the table. And during COVID, I saw so many incredible messages I'm sure you did too, of how my recipes have helped their families.

You know. Oh, no, it's really nice to get the feedback. It really is so nice when it's nice feedback.

Did your following grow gradually or did you did you graduate?

Well? Yeah, there wasn't ever like a celebrity shout out or a talk show or a Martha Stewart mentioned like that wasn't really I was very slow and steady, which I think is also really key because our community is very loyal. I think it's why our email subscription list is strong. I think it's why our numbers are strong because.

And what are you doing with your email list?

We send out a newsletter.

Well, you can sign up for however many you want, but we send out a newsletter every single day with the new recipe. We send out a Sunday newsletter that is like a recap of everything, and it includes some of my Sunday favorites that I share.

You know, it's what you opt in for.

Well, it's like a magazine subscription. You're doing a very nice thing. Without magazines around any longer, they're just they're just going away quickly. It's nice to have a newsletter like that.

Yeah, and I think people are enjoying being off of social media a little bit more and kind of viewing the content that they really want to be Anyways.

Yes, so when you started out, you were working by yourself, and now you are you actually have a real organization.

Well, it was always my mom and I so it was my mom that encouraged me to start the website, and from day one, she built the back end of the website and she still does the back end of the website. So she manages all the advertisements on the website and you know, like the nitty gritty things that I would never want to deal with.

Who's your biggest advertiser?

Oh, I mean, we work with an advertisement company that puts the ads on.

We work with this company.

Called ad Thrive. Incredible.

It's really the reason that's allowed me to not have to work with brands, which I love, because when you're working with brands in a way where they're paying you and it's sponsored content, you're not able to have control over what you're really sharing.

It makes it really difficult.

So I like to support the brands that I really enjoy, and I like to do it in an organic way, and I don't really like.

To be paid for it. Yeah, that's basically. I want to do it with the people I like. I'm only sharing I use.

And I think that's also to another point. Why the things that I recommend they sell, and because I don't recommend things that I don't enjoy and don't use.

So what's your relationship with Amazon.

We love Amazon.

My mom used to be called Amazon Jen because she would order from Amazon so consistently.

I have a friend called Holly. Her name is Holly. Her nickname is Holly Overnightly instead of Holly go lightly the.

Queen of an overnight ship. I love an overnight shipping. My relationship with Amazon is great. They're incredible. They're really close. They've been especially incredible to work with this last year.

What do you do with them?

I honestly, I don't do any sponsor content with them. I really just work with them through affiliate links, which I guess is sponsored in a way.

Yeah, we're talking more right now about.

Bigger picture things that how we can work together.

But I've been doing a lot with Amazon Fashion, which is exciting and trying to integrate the worlds of fashion and food.

So you now have a team of six working with you, Yes, and they are very supportive and they work how many days a week?

See that is the thing with owning your own business, and especially a business and social media that is so social media focused.

It's really a seven day.

Work week, and they don't mind.

We have rotating days. So but if something is needed on a Saturday. They're not saying no, you know good.

I think it is. That's how I feel.

Yeah, thank you. I think it's important if you're passionate about the business and.

Health, and a creative business like yours or mine really requires at least.

They Yeah, the whole Thursday is a new Friday thing.

I don't know about that one. Guys. Yeah, and here we are on Friday working, aren't we.

Yes, we are, Yes, we are. I'm happy to.

Be doing it. So your family is so supportive. What's next for your brand?

Oh, my gosh, so much. We're so excited. We have another cookbook coming that is very exciting. People love to enjoy the cookbooks. Product is a really large focus. I really want to be able to provide people. Honestly, it's a beautiful model what you've created and you you've been able to be in so many different realms under the home housees. I love that you've touched on fashion. I

Where did you get that plate? Where did you get that dish?

You know, they want they want to know everything.

I'd really love to be able to create that product with them.

It's a very hard thing to do.

Well.

Good luck with all of that. That's so great.

Excited, So Tigan, this has been a great pleasure to talk to you.

You are vivacious as I expected it. Thank you and thank you for joining me on the podcast.

You can follow at half Baked Harvest on Instagram, on TikTok, and on her website half baked dot com.

Thank you again, thank you so much.

Thank you for having me. This was amazing.