By Nicole Pajer
Back in the day, music tour buses were loaded with kegs, junk food and other guilty pleasures. Nowadays, touring bands are requesting stops be made at Whole Foods and searching for restaurants that cook with organic and sustainable ingredients. Such is the case with Warner Brothers recording artist Michelle Branch, who tours with her bassist husband Teddy Landau and often takes along six-year-old daughter Owen.
Eating healthy is not a foreign concept to the twenty-eight-year-old Grammy Award-winning singer/songwriter who has topped the charts with hit singles such as “Everywhere,” “Breathe,” and her infamous collaboration with Carlos Santana, “The Game of Love.” She was raised in the alleged “power center” of Sedona, Arizona, where her parents shopped for locally sourced food and maintained a garden and fruit orchards.
It was after watching Food, Inc. and giving birth to Owen that Branch was inspired to take her eating habits to the next level and gain more 
control over her food sources. She planted a garden, is contemplating a backyard beehive, and recently installed a chicken coop on the property of her Burbank home.
In an exclusive interview with Whole Life Times, Branch discusses the joys of using food she’s raised, as well as tips for eating healthy while traveling.
What made you decide to get chickens?
The thing that spurred me into it was factory farms and not knowing where our food was coming from. It’s really hard when you travel because you’re constantly eating catered food and you never know the source. Having a chicken coop was a way to have more control over where it was coming from.
What does your daughter think about all this?
I’m a huge baker and I use a lot of eggs. Being able to tell my daughter to run out into the yard and grab a couple of eggs is so much fun. She sees the connection of where her food comes from, and it’s changed her perspective entirely. With the garden and the chickens, sometimes we don’t even have to go to the market to make meals.
How many chickens do you have?
We had three but one got munched by a raccoon. There is a breed called an Americana and they lay different colored eggs—blue, yellow, pink—and we definitely want to get some of those. We are also talking about getting a beehive.
What have you been baking lately? Do you have any favorite recipes you can share with us?
I do a lot of fruit tarts or roasted fruit. If I have peaches lying around I’ll throw them in the oven with some butter and cinnamon and then put whipped cream on top. When I make pie crust, I’ll put some in the freezer or fridge and I’ll roll the dough out flat and throw some fruit on it and put it in the oven. That’s my easy last minute dessert stuff. It’s really good! Unfortunately it’s really bad because I have no self-control when it comes to dessert!
What’s growing in your garden right now?
We harvested tons of tomatoes. We have zucchini, cucumbers, watermelon, beets, peas . . . We planted pumpkins early on so we had them by Halloween.
What was your initial impetus for sourcing your own food?
My parents always shopped at our local market and tried to buy locally. My dad’s a plumbing contractor and he used to trade work for veggies. He has a fruit tree orchard and a garden, and he passed his enthusiasm on to me.
You’ve mentioned being a big fan of Food, Inc. Did that documentary hit you hard?
When I was in the theater watching Food, Inc., I was sobbing. It freaked me out so much. Having my daughter just heightened my sensitivity—I keep wondering what is going to happen in her lifetime. I have actually never had a McDonald’s hamburger in my entire life. I don’t know what it tastes like. People are like, “You’ve never had a Big Mac? You’re crazy!” That’s just not how I was brought up.
Do you have any tips for eating healthy on the road?
Try to find a local natural foods market because a lot of those places have salad bars and delis. Our bus has a fridge and a little stove so we stock up with essentials. If I have time to go out, I usually Google restaurants that support local organic ideals. If we’re catering in, I’ll eat the vegetarian option as opposed to the meat because [the meat] creeps me out.
Is the rest of the band into eating healthy?
We’re a pretty healthy band. Nobody on my crew has been sick this entire tour. Usually when you are on a bus with recirculating air, it’s common for someone to get sick and take everyone down, but that’s not the case because we are all eating so healthy! Ten years ago, it would have been an entirely different situation; everyone would have been eating junk all the time. It’s cool to see that it’s changed and we are drinking 
kombucha and eating seaweed.
Does Owen have the healthiest lunch in her classroom?
We try to keep it pretty healthy. It’s easier to get her in the habit of eating that way now. When she’s older she can make her own decisions. Her teacher was teasing me because she ran out one day to get McDonalds on a lunch break and my daughter completely scolded her for having it. She said, “That’s gross. Why are you eating that?”
Do you have any rituals that keep you grounded on the road?
I like to do yoga after shows every night. It really helps recenter me because it’s a lot to be on stage and have all that energy coming at me, and it’s hard to wind down after that.
What are some of your favorite places to grab a healthy bite in Los Angeles?
I go to Hugo’s but my favorite is their little taco stand on Coldwater. Their soy chorizo taquitos are amazing. Kreation in Santa Monica is really delicious and has fantastic coffee, breakfast and lunch. I go to Earth Bar almost every day. I get green juices and then they have this drink called coconut bliss that I’m completely obsessed with. It has coconut meat and coconut water and it tastes like a healthy pina colada. Sun Café is fantastic—their sweet kale shake. KindKreme’s vegan ice cream is great.
Michelle Branch’s new single, “Loud Music,” is available now on iTunes.
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