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    • Nurture
    • RETREATS
      • Past Retreats
    • SERVICES
    • HARVEST TABLE DINNERS
    • BLOG
    • About
      • PRESS
      • Testimonials
    • CONTACT
      • APPLY
    • RETREATS
      • Past Retreats
    • SERVICES
    • HARVEST TABLE DINNERS
    • BLOG
    • About
      • PRESS
      • Testimonials
    • CONTACT
      • APPLY

  • Fun fact: when I was single and getting clear on t Fun fact: when I was single and getting clear on the kind of partner I wanted to spend my life with, I cooked an elaborate meal and set a fancy table for two – for me and my future love. Candles; the good china; wine; real linen napkins; my Oma’s special embroidered tablecloth; everything. It was the kind of creative act that had a lasting impact on me, as it became so clear how I wanted to be loved, I didn’t settle for anything less until I ‘recognized’ my imaginary dinner guest in Josh when I met him. I'm a big believer in cooking and eating as ritual, which is why I'm VERY excited to announce a new offering that combines my love of intentional food and...YOUR love! May I introduce you to... My Nurture Valentine - Cook Your Own Love Story. Here's how it works: 1) We start with a base menu I've designed inspired by my own love: a cocktail; a starter; a main with side and dessert. 2) You fill out a questionnaire about your love story: how you met; your inside jokes; places that hold meaning to you; sensory cues that remind you of one another. 3) I take your answers and design custom elements for each dish, based on your answers, essentially telling your love story through food. 4) You get a beautiful PDF of your custom recipes with a grocery list, love notes that expand on how I used specific flavours to tell your story, and prompts to set the scene and table for a special homemade meal on the 14th. 5) On Sunday, February 12th from 2-4pm, we prep together in the virtual 'Nurture Prep Kitchen' via Zoom. We laugh, we cry, we make pastry and new friends. A gift, a workshop and a custom Valentine's Day meal about you and your love for less than two prix fixe dinners where you are customer #75 at table #12, second seating and pretend to be inspired by the choice of lava cake for dessert. Happy to share we're halfway sold out - we have spots for THREE couples left! Check out the link in bio for full details about how I can tell your love story through food. Or, if you're a Valentine on a budget, you can also pay-what-you-can and make my ready-made base menu PDF with your beau. 📷️: @katieharrisonphoto #valentinesdaygift #valentinesdaygiftideas
    Two key facts that apply to hosting any event:⁠ Two key facts that apply to hosting any event:⁠ ⁠ 1. We eat with our eyes first.⁠ ⁠ 2. The breaks and mealtimes at events are when the real connections happen. ⁠ ⁠ WHY oh WHY then, do most events ignore the opportunity to infuse more flavour and meaning into their meantimes? ⁠ ⁠ I polled in today's stories asking for examples of the worst food you've been served at an event and you all REALLY came through. I mean: Ritz crackers still in their sleeve?! We've all eaten the dry chicken at weddings or the classic conference soggy roasted veggie and goat cheese wrap, both of which are likelier to cause indigestion than they are to cause connection. ⁠ ⁠ No one connects over wet wraps except for in soggy solidarity. ⁠ ⁠ If the food served during your breaks is sub-par, people may associate your event with that mealtime disappointment, no matter how incredible your content.⁠ ⁠ Here's my invitation: think about how you can infuse your breaks with a variety of colours, flavours, textures and interactive components. Serve things family style to encourage conversation. Let the flavours support the story you're telling and act like fuel for your content, not simply as fuel to get through the afternoon session where most of us would prefer to nap. ⁠ ⁠ The best part is, you don't even need to spend more to do this, it's a matter of thinking differently and seeing the meals or snacks at your event for what they really are: an untapped opportunity for people to connect with one another AND with your brand and content, at a deep, fully digestible level. ⁠ ⁠ What's something you've been served at an event that fell flat? Did it effect how you felt about the event itself? I'm curious, and would love to offer some alternatives of what could have been done differently!⁠ ⁠ 📷️: @creatinglight.studio⁠ ⁠ #eventfood #eventfoodcatering #eventplanningtips #eventplanningtoronto #eventplanner
    This year, I have chosen "Grow" as my word of the This year, I have chosen "Grow" as my word of the year. A still, small voice whispered it to me in the centre of the labyrinth at our Fall retreat and it's been tugging at my soul ever since, like a toddler asking "are we there yet?"⁠ ⁠ You see, I have big dreams for Nurture. If you've been here for a while you know it's been on my heart to buy a big old farmhouse to host and feed you and your creative dreams since I was 8 years old. That still, small voice also told me it's time to put that dream back on the front burner.⁠ ⁠ While I know choosing 'Grow' counts as an invitation to get cozy with the ways I still shrink, I am excited to grow towards my dreams. I'll be tending to my connections, my business, my community, my heart and my capacity for what it means to be a human this year.⁠ ⁠ Do you choose a word of the year? Drop me a line to share what it is, if you like. I'd love to help hold one another accountable to what we're calling in, eventually over tea and hearth baked currant scones with honey vanilla bean butter at the harvest table at the Nurture farmhouse, if that still, small voice has anything to say about it.⁠ ⁠ Want to get a sense of what this community feels like visually? Take a tour through our Fall 2022 retreat photo gallery, featuring gorgeous photos (like this one of workshop facilitator Julia Nethersole @glass.full) by Amber Ellis of @creatinglight.studio. Link is in bio! ⁠
    TW: heavy stuff. It feels like 2022 was the extens TW: heavy stuff. It feels like 2022 was the extension pack for the never-ending 2020, but as I sit here with my Solstice candle and my memories, it's clear that it was a year with its own richness, growth and meaning. As I inspect each memory, it feels like rummaging through a Lost & Found full of milestones I'm grateful to revisit. Even though some had me on my knees, they remind me what it feels like to be alive during this wacky time. I lost: - my taste for my need to be needed - this affected every relationship and how I showed up in them - feeling in my limbs, which ended up being a stress-related symptom that helped me make major decisions about where and how I wanted to work and live, ie: NOT LIKE THIS - Josh's grandpa, at 94 - sight of my creative self for a while there, but had friends who reminded me till I remembered - our baby at 13 weeks - my faith in our healthcare system - Toronto, my city and my home for the last 14+ years - my salaried job that I left to pursue what I really want to be doing - all sense of space and time during some truly epic lovemaking - my clawfoot bathtub that I spent hours listening to Enya in I found: - that my jeans no longer fit but I know why and love myself anyway - the courage to live with a partner for the first time, in a new city - my voice when it came to advocating for my health - I remembered how to cook from my heart and soul at Nurture and retreats with my romance book club, @stephpellett @cobblestonefarmretreat & fun brunch with @sundaysfurniture in spite of 2+ years away - that seat heat really is where it's at - I no longer feel like Nurture is a personal project, but a legitimate business that I am delighted to be the steward of - that no one has had it easy - the solidarity of that, while tragic, also really helped me feel less alone - that I am ready to commit to a lifetime with Josh in the kind of relationship a past me used to only dream about - that while I am not a jewellery person, I am obsessed with my blue topaz engagement ring 🤭 - that I can still smile like in this photo, in spite of everything Here's to the stew of it all, all my love to you this holiday. 📷️: @creatinglight.studio
    Let’s say I’m the Ghost of Christmas Future, b Let’s say I’m the Ghost of Christmas Future, but way less creepy.⁠ ⁠ We’re at a holiday market, the outdoor kind, except everything is ‘brought to you by Nurture’. It’s that magical time of day during the colder months where the light paints everything gold until the violet darkness seeps in and the twinkle lights and lanterns are turned on and lit. There’s the crunch of snow underfoot, but it’s not too cold. You can see your breath in a way that’s fun, where you pretend to be the caterpillar with the hookah from Alice in Wonderland saying “Whooooo. Ahhhhhhhr. Youuuuuu.” to the delight or amused eye roll of your dear friends, who are your companions on this adventure.⁠ ⁠ At the Nurture market entrance, a jovial couple from the neighbouring farm greets you like an old friend and hands you a cup of brown butter eggnog punch (spiked, if you like) that warms you to your core. Something pops and sizzles at the nearby fire pits where people are contentedly warming themselves. You are delighted to discover it’s cast iron cauldrons full of hot melted cheese you can ladle out into a quaint tin mug and dunk torn hunks of homemade sourdough rye into. The barns and chicken coops form a natural kind of open market square, which is dotted with tables adorned with all kinds of festive festoons and laden with exactly the kinds of things you want to bring home as gifts or nudge your partner about to bring home for YOU. In the hay loft, a local bluegrass band plays swinging holiday tunes. You find yourself tapping along as you browse.⁠ ⁠ Featured at the market tables are all the incredible small businesses that have contributed to Nurture Self Care Kits past. While we look forward to hosting all past and future contributors as vendors, here’s a small selection of makers who contributed their wares to our recent Fall 2022 Nurture retreat, to give you a taste! ⁠ ⁠ Take my hand and walk with me and meet @ariirispara @bloembotanicals @gentledecay @maisonnoirtoronto @happybeet & @sundayscompany…⁠via blog link in bio! ⁠ 📷️: @creatinglight.studio⁠ ⁠ #canadianmakers #handmadeontario #holidaymarket2022 #supportsmall #shoplocal #womenmade #makersmovement
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