Kelis Is Spending This Holiday Season on the Farm—and in the Kitchen

The "Milkshake" singer's holiday celebrations center food—the question is, what kind?

Kelis is known around the world for being a singer and songwriter, but she’s also a chef and a farmer with a passion for what she does. Inspired by this passion, she moved her family to the farm to have “more control and more freedom” and to have more insight into the foods she and her family were eating.

The farm is a family affair. She has three kids who she says all work on the property each day.

“They help with the animals, they help in the garden; it’s just part of our life. It’s just how we live,” she told Kindred by Parents in an interview.

The combination of having fresh, seasonal produce in the backyard and Kelis being a Le Cordon Bleu-trained chef means her children eat very well. They also have “mature palates,” she said.

“Obviously, I’m a chef and I want everything to be delicious, so they’re spoiled. They eat really well and they know they do,” she says.

The singer’s farmstead, named Bounty Farms, is filled with animals. Kelis says it is filled with chickens, turkeys, peacocks, alpacas, goats, sheep, horses, cows, ducks, dogs, cats, a turtle, and a new donkey at the time. She adds new animals when it makes sense—and sometimes when she feels like it.

“If I come across somebody that needs to come home with us, then they do. Like the donkey! He looks like a freaking stuffed animal, it makes no sense. He’s so cute and fluffy and soft,” says Kelis.

Kelis’s company, Bounty & Full, is also based around organic and seasonal products like components for holiday meals, pressed olive oil, seasoning blends, and more.

With the holidays upon us, it’s no surprise that for Kelis, celebrations are center food—the variable is what type of food and theme she’ll create.

“It's always going to be good and thoughtful and as much from the farm as possible,” she said. “I might go full-on Puerto Rican or we might do Asian-inspired or whatever, but it really just depends. (Kelis’s mother is Puerto Rican and Chinese.) It depends on the business and what I was promoting or what I was doing for my business…because if I'm doing turkeys for Thanksgiving, then I've already made 50 turkeys and by the time the holiday comes, it’s like dear God, no more turkey. But it just depends.”

Similarly, she recently partnered with Lactaid to create an eggnog recipe that people who are sensitive to dairy can enjoy and a remixed version of “Milkshake” called “It’s Dairy.”

As a farmer, Kelis referred to herself as a “milk believer” who thinks “drinking real milk is really important.” The song and the ad campaign were a way for her to start the conversation around milk and the misconception that Lactaid products aren’t real milk using her 20-year-old hit song.

Formerly a city girl, Kelis can’t see herself living anywhere but her farm now.

“I don't think I'll ever not live on a farm again—it's the best way to live. It's beautiful. It's relaxing. It's gratifying. You’ve got more freedom, more control. I eat amazing. I don't understand why you don't live on a farm – everybody should live on a farm,” she laughed.

As a parent, it’s really important for Kelis to be able to give her children the freshest foods and produce she can, but she understands that not everyone can move out and run their own farm. Her advice is to get in contact with local farmers and find ways to explore their produce options.

“I think most of the time most major cities have suburbs and…within a 100-mile radius, there are local farms that are producing stuff that are not the big massive producers,” she said. “You’ll get better quality and you'll learn more about your food too, because these people like I said, they take real care in what they do.”

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