The 'New Girl' actress says her vegetable farming company is an accident and she has no idea how her couponing business works because she didn't develop the app herself.
- Nov 22, 2021
AceShowbiz - Singer/actress Zooey Deschanel has added top businesswoman to her resume, thanks to her hit hydroponic vegetable growing company.
The "New Girl" star - who shares Elsie, six, and Charlie, four, with her producer ex-husband Jacob Pechenik - started focussing on her nutrition when she was pregnant with her first child.
"Before that it was fine if I like, ate something made of plastic," Zooey quipped on America's "The Kelly Clarkson Show".
"But when you're carrying a child, it's so much responsibility, such a heavyweight. I never would have pictured this necessarily but I really started to look into the food system and how messed up it is so when I was pregnant, I thought, 'I have the resources to go and buy healthy food and not everybody has access to it.' "
The star did lots of research before coming up with a hydroponic tower called the Farmstand, which lets anyone worried about what they're eating grow their own healthy fruit and vegetables at home.
"I started a company called Lettuce Grow," she explained. "We do like, hydroponic gardens that you can grow on a balcony and it uses 95 per cent less water than traditional in-ground gardens."
And the success of her operation for amateur gardeners has prompted Zooey, who is now dating American TV property expert Jonathan Scott, to launch another business too.
"Just this last year I started a company called Merryfield and it's kind of like couponing… if you're lazy," she added. "You can go to any store, take a picture of your receipt, and... log in (to see) all the participating brands... If the business is one of our participating brands, you get five per cent (of purchase price) back, or more."
Even though she's thrilled her latest business venture is a winner, too, she admits the technology side of it isn't her strong suit.
"I don't know how it works," she smiled. "I'm not an app developer."
