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- Nurture Fall 2023
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RETREATS
- Nurture Fall 2023
- PAST RETREATS
SERVICES
HARVEST TABLE DINNERS
BLOG
ABOUT
- PRESS
- TESTIMONIALS
CONTACT
- APPLY

RETREATS
- Nurture Fall 2023
- PAST RETREATS
SERVICES
HARVEST TABLE DINNERS
BLOG
ABOUT
- PRESS
- TESTIMONIALS
CONTACT
- APPLY

PAST RETREATS

Click on any of the images below to travel to the photo galleries and workshop summaries of Nurtures past!

NURTURE GALLERY TEMPLATES

To me, this photo captures the intangible feelings

To me, this photo captures the intangible feelings of Nurture in a nutshell:

Observe how everyone is fully present to what @stephpellett is saying. I love how open and unguarded her face is, how genuine everyone's smiles are. There is a softness, a gentleness in the energy of this photo that beautifully reflects what it actually feels like to be there, sitting at the Nurture table, amongst a group of people you can breathe easy with.

Look at how the bowls are empty. This affirms that folks have lingered long past their morning oatmeal (which was 'Strawberry Shortcake - roasted strawberries, vanilla bean whipped cream, crumbled shortbread and pistachio-mint drizzle, FYI). We love a linger at Nurture, and they happen naturally. There is no rushing, no gobbling, no pressure to up and do the next urgent thing. Here, we sip our coffee slowly, enjoying one another's company, giving our breakfast time to digest with ease.

Check out how the sun pours in to this room like magic: in the mornings it is pale lemon, like whipped cake batter. In the afternoons, it's baklava honey gold.

You can see we don't stand on ceremony here. Everyone here is wearing what they feel comfortable in. Some are still in their pajamas; others wear their favourite sweater, or the pants with the elastic waistband. Again, room to breathe.

Right around the corner from when this photo was taken is our first workshop of the day, where the table will be cleared and covered again in the artistic expression of one of our incredible facilitators. All our hands will be set to creating, our hearts telling us the what while the person leading us in their craft shows us the how.

After that, this table will be cleared again and laden with the luxury of a lunch that makes your synapses fire with its vibrancy, textures, colours and flavours. You'll feel like you've stepped into another workshop, because how you put things on your plate is itself an artistic act.

This table is the heart of Nurture. It's where we feast, play, learn and connect. We can't wait for you to experience it!

📷️: @katewatkinson

#ontarioretreat #retreatyourself #retreat2023

Introducing our incredible Nurture Fall 2023 Team.

Introducing our incredible Nurture Fall 2023 Team.

There is not enough space on a reel to share about how much each of these women inspire me, so feel free to do a deep dive on their accounts and websites to learn more and become as enamoured as I am.

@stephpellett is our resident Nurture Creative Producer who makes our behind the scenes as nourishing as everything public-facing. She is a systems witch of the highest order, and as I mention in the reel, your life will change for the better when she enters it.

@francesbeattyphoto and I met 7 years ago and I’ve been fangirling over her work ever since. When she said yes to being on our team I let out a squeal of glee normally reserved for high school girls at boy band concerts. Can’t wait to see our Nurture weekend through her eyes and soulful lens.

@mimaschrwonstie I first heard about and fell in love with Christie and her work when her husband sat next to me at one of our Harvest Table Dinners. I knew I had to meet her, court her, and have her share her incredible work and wisdom with this Nurture cohort. She walks the talk of a committed artistic practice for creativity’s sake and weaves in ancestral connection in a way that is both grounded and profound.

@gentledecay is a deep listener, secret keeper and flower poet. Her willingness to dig into the darker parts of the creative practice and celebrate the beauty there is what drew me to her like a magnet when I met her at a workshop years ago. I was like: ohhhh, this woman KNOWS.

@lizawallman and I met at a picnic through mutual friends and I told her in my characteristic lack of chill that “she is great and would she like to be friends”. Thank GOODNESS she said yes, because she is now both a friend and a mentor when it comes to the importance and health benefits of making one’s art and creative practice a priority and maintaining a sense of playfulness and whimsy in our lives.

And lastly, me! If yesterday’s post is any indication of my ardency when it comes to holding space for and feeding you, you are in good, earnest hands.

We’d love to spend the weekend with you and have only THREE spots left! Grab yours today!

📷: @katewatkinson

I don't tend to share much beyond the odd sneak pe

I don't tend to share much beyond the odd sneak peek of a menu with you before you come to Nurture, because to me it's important to bake surprise and delight into the experience.

It's one of the reasons that when you sign up for Nurture, I ask you not only about your food sensitivities, but also your strong dislikes. Once you account for all of the varied things folks either can't have, or don't like, I'm left with what I like to think of as 'creative limitations'. It is my artistic prompt to myself to see what I magic I might still be able to make with the ingredients and flavour profiles that ARE at my disposal. How can this limited palate/palette sing? God, I love a culinary double entendre.

The journey towards building a Nurture menu is as layered as eating it. I take deep dives into research caves. I spelunk through library shelves or deep blog archives, sourcing inspiration for how to best pair techniques for one kind of recipe with flavours from another. My scrolling finger does push ups cause it Pinterests so hard.

My approach to food is playful, hearty, whimsical, vegetable forward, full of love and just the right amount of indulgence.

I tell stories through food, and for Nurture, the story is about you.

You, coming into breakfast and seeing a variety of flavours, textures and colours in front of you to 'paint' your own culinary masterpiece with elements that work together in harmony, no matter how you put them on your plate. That's how I buffet.

To me, feeding you as a Nurture attendee is my way of infusing your creative practice with edible inspiration. It's about serving things family style as a spark for social connection with the person to your right and left. It's about teasing you with smells and reminding your body about the benefits of taking things slowly, because some of the food has steeped or stewed or marinated for as long as it needed to, and so can you.

Nurture food is a culinary love letter. If you want to be romanced, we still have 4 spots left to join us November 17-19th! All the delicious details via link in bio.

📷️: @katewatkinson from our traditional opening night Nurture grazing dinner, Nurture Spring 2023

The very first Nurture began on this very day, Sep

The very first Nurture began on this very day, September 11, 2015.

I’m actually at Loretto Maryholme right now, where we host the retreats, so greeting this 8 year anniversary even more potently. I’m sitting on one of the cottage core wicker chairs, taking in the lake view and reminiscing about all that’s taken place inside these walls over the 8 years Nurture has happened here.

I think of profound things like the friendships that blossomed from people meeting here that are still going strong today.

I think of wild things like the time we accidentally built a 40 foot bonfire, or the time we made onion fritters and the fire department came.

I think of simple things, like all the times I’ve wandered the rooms before guests arrive to tweak the bedding, or place a vase of fresh flowers just so.

I think of the circles of stories that we’ve shared, like the time everyone shared a love story around the table that gave hope to anyone who was still single, or the time we shared about special objects we brought and not a single person avoided wet cheeks when it was their turn.

I think about how I ever did this retreat without @stephpellett and can’t fathom how everything still got done. Now she’s part of the fabric of Nurture in the best way.

I think about all the creative arts we’ve been introduced to by incredibly talented artists - floral design, pottery, macrame, sewing, gardening, paper flower making, to name just a few. I think about all the incredible souls who have captured these weekends with their cameras and their hearts.

I think about who I was back then, so eager and specific about how I wanted things to feel, finally having real people in the room and getting to experience my dream being lifted off my journal pages and into reality.

So many people have crossed the Nurture threshold and felt at home. I do not take this for granted. I am deeply, profoundly grateful and so moved by the degree to which this retreat has acted as a catalyst for connection and creativity; a sanctuary for folks to hear the sound of their own soul again.

We get to do it again in November and I can’t wait!!! More info to join us in bio!

📷: @alyssanicolew

This is Loretto Maryholme. I stumbled across this

This is Loretto Maryholme. I stumbled across this gem of a place back in 2014 when I was GOING THROUGH IT and needed a place of refuge, reckoning and deep healing. Fresh from the hangover that was my long dark night of the soul, I came away from my time spent at Loretto Maryholme with a firmer sense of myself, what I had to do, and what I had to let go of.

I was lucky that the letting go of what no longer served me created space for a new dream to emerge: start a retreat where people can connect with themselves and listen to the sound of their own soul, like I had. I pictured tables laden with delicious food, creative hands on workshops, belly laughs, real connection. I decided to name this dream ‘Nurture’.

So when it came time to select a venue for my first retreat 8 years ago now, I knew I had to do it at Loretto - the place that had given me my me-ness back. We’ve held Nurture here every year since.

Want to come experience the magic of a Nurture weekend at Loretto yourself? Sign up for our November 17-19th Nurture Fall waitlist by dropping your name and email below or in a DM. All the juicy details about the retreat are available via link in bio.

Oh, and whoever signs up to Nurture Lush first gets our favourite ‘Green Room’, which is the one with the clawfoot bath that looks out onto the lake. 😁🛁

Come get Nurtured this November!

📷: @katewatkinson

#ontarioretreat #fallretreat #entrepreneurretreat #retreatyourself #retreat2023 #selfcareretreat

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