Garden Goddess! Make-up free Oprah Winfrey poses with fresh fruit and vegetables from her Maui farm in new photo

She grew up on a tiny farm in Kosciusko, Mississippi, while she and her grandmother nourished themselves solely from what they personally grew.

And now Oprah Winfrey has been getting back to her roots – harvesting produce from the farm on her Maui property.

The 60-year-old media mogul shared a photo of her most recent yield on Instagram on Thursday – consisting of kale, cabbage, spinach, onions, celery, lettuce, cilantro, lemons, limes, and oranges, as noted in the caption.

Harvest day: Oprah Winfrey shared a photo of her most recent harvest from her Maui farm on Instagram on Thursday

The TV host is kneeling on the seat of a green truck, facing backwards toward her load of fresh bounty – ripe fruits and vegetables contained in a variety of wicker baskets.
The Butler star is dressed down in a purple sweater with ‘Amherst’ emblazoned in white letters across the front.

A make-up free Oprah sported dark shades, with her thick hair swept back in a ponytail.

Last year, The Color Purple star designated 16 acres of her Maui property for farming, planting more than 100 species of fruits, vegetables, and herbs - as described in the May 2013 issue of O, The Oprah Magazine. 

The 60-year-old media mogul shared this image on her Instagram on January 16, with the caption, 'Harvesting beautiful greens even in January ! #harvestday'

Their plot of land is in the shape of a half moon – which she describes as her own 'fertile crescent.'

And she says harvesting this produce is a means for her to give back to Maui.

'90 percent of the food on the island is flown or shipped in from outside, which makes it very expensive to buy—not to mention the carbon footprint involved in getting it here,' Oprah wrote.

'We realized if we could grow delicious food ourselves, we could share it.’

Her efforts have produced great results.
'Here on Maui, our soil is now so good and so rich that we're already producing 145 pounds of food each week,' she added.

Congrats! The Color Purple star was recently honoured with the highly coveted Montecito Award at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, for her work in film

'And everything grows five times as big as you'd expect. We can grow tomatoes all year long, and they taste like real tomatoes.
'We're still figuring out the best way to make use of our bounty, but for now I walk down the road with bags of lettuce, going, "Hi, would you like some lettuce?" I grew it! I feel like I can't waste it.'

Now Oprah finds deeper meaning in gardening than she did as a little girl.

'I've come to see the process of growing things as a metaphor for living. In life, as on a farm or in a garden, we get out of it what we put into it.

Fierce: Oprah attended the Santa Barbara International Film Festival in a sweeping black and white maxi skirt with a form fitting black belted sweater

'Whatever our dreams, ideas, or projects, we plant a seed, nurture it—and then reap the fruits of our labours.

‘That lesson was there for the taking way back in Mississippi. But I needed 50 years, thousands of miles, Bob's [her friend and garden consultant] great example, and a whole lot of big, beautiful tomatoes to really learn it for myself.'
The Beloved star was recently honoured with the highly coveted Montecito Award at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, for her work in film.

DM