Celebrating 6 years of Ruth Holly!

We are six!

This month we celebrated our 6th business Birthday! A huge THANKYOU to all who continue to support my small business, a particularly tough year, but also incredibly rewarding.

As stockists closed closed their doors, trade shows were cancelled (and not refunded!) and suppliers struggled to stay open, this last year was tricky to say the least. Not to mention overwhelming Covid anxiety, which then dominoed into general anxiety, and at times, it was a real push to keep going.

That said, in our 6th year Ruth Holly grew by 453%! Developing new stockist relationships despite no trade shows, and nurturing existing ones, sourcing new suppliers to facilitate your much appreciated lovely flow of orders, and seeing press coverage sky rocket as I launched the incredibly popular Nomad collection, we also saw a rush on Keeping-in-touch kits, as friends and family reached out to one another. All this alongside a thoroughly eventful personal development period too, how very blessed.

We celebrated…

in the garden with a big foil balloon, and a homemade plum cake, it was delish!

Plum Cake Recipe

Ingredients

Serves: 12

• 150g caster sugar

• 115g butter

• 140g plain flour

• 1 teaspoon baking powder

• 2 eggs

• 1 pinch salt

• 3 plums, pitted and sliced

• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon/mixed spice, or to taste

• 1 tablespoon caster sugar, for sprinkling

Method

Prep:15min › Cook:45min › Ready in:1hr

Preheat oven to 180 C / Gas 4.

Mix sugar and butter with a fork/spoon until fluffy or with electric mixer. Mix in flour and baking powder and sift into creamed mixture. Beat in eggs and salt. Mix everything well until creamy.

Pour batter into a greased 26cm round tin. Decorate the top with the plums and sprinkle with 1-2 tablespoons sugar and cinnamon.

Bake in preheated oven for 40-50 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. Cool to room temperature and then enjoy!

Living Off The Land

THE SIMPLER THE LIFE, THE GREATER THE BLESSINGS.

In these challenging times, I have turned to the simple things in life. Finding joy from small pleasures and priceless pursuits, spending more time in nature, and looking at ways to protect our environment, doing my very small bit to contribute where I can.

Not entirely selfless though! - these changes are benefitting me, and will hopefully continue to in the coming years. I have stopped eating meat, travel far less (including car travel), tend to my garden more, protect insects and wildlife where I can, and am generally more conscious, and live life a little slower.

Taking a step further than I am able to right now, are my lovely friends Rachel and Nick. Once Halifax dwellers like myself (in fact I met them as they bought my old house!), they uprooted from Yorkshire back in 2019 and are now the proud owners of a beautiful property, with outbuildings and farm land, in Dunbar, Scotland.

Rachel and Nick always aspired to live off the land, and live a sustainable life away from the rat race. In June 2019 they made decision to set up small-holding and Nick swiftly started looking for properties. By August they had made offer on Beltonford Villa, and got keys end of September!

I was lucky enough to join them for a day and had a full tour of the property, including polytunnel and 40 tree orchard! We had a beach walk, I picked veg for our dinner and I left feeling happy and content, and100% more wholesome than when I arrived.

I asked Rachel for a little break down of events as she really has made it look super easy - especially with 2 little ones under 5!

Here’s her timeline…

• we moved in September 2019

• we spent the Winter sorting out the house, and repairing, securing fencing & borders etc.

• in February 2020 we put up poly tunnel and the first animals arrived… six hens and two piglets!

• March saw us planting the 40 tree orchard – apples, plums, pears! We planted fruit bushes gooseberry, redcurrant, blackcurrant, loganberry, blackberry, raspberry and 300 hedging plants for wildlife corridor along property boundary.

• Late March we sowed seeds in the poly tunnel and dug the field in preparation for the veggie patch.

• In April the lambs arrived! (Pet lambs from a friend’s sheep farm) – Timmy, Jimmy and Hope.

• This Summer was sowing more seeds! maintenance weeding, harvesting, digging and potting up in the polytunnel.

• More recently we have been picking apples, freezing blackberries and other fruits & making jams and chutneys etc!

I can honestly say, this is the way forward.

If we can somehow embrace digital world, but loosen the grip it seems to have on all our lives, and move towards whats real and raw and good, them I’m pretty sure civilisation would be happier and healthier.

I asked Rachel to share her pro’s and con’s - and it’s clear she agrees.

PROS

• watching the kids pick and eat veg straight from the plant (peas/ strawberries/ berries are their favourites!)

• giving the kids the opportunity to help feed and clean out the animals

• 100% home-grown meals – no nasties!

• Spending more time outside and noticing the seasons

CONS

• we haven’t found any yet!!

Quick Easy Meal ideas... Aubergine and Red Lentil Bake

Hello community, hope you are well and safe and are finding ways to navigate these unprecedented times. It’s the 4th Saturday of lockdown in the UK, and I’d like to say it’s getting easier, but in fact it’s getting a little more daunting!

That said, I have been organically finding things to keep me entertained and occupied for the majority of the time. Never one for rigid plans and structure, I have been gentle with myself, allowing things to naturally develop rather than forcing myself to learn a language in 3 months or crochet a new bed spread! One thing that is beginning to emerge naturally, is my new found love of cooking.

The forced lockdown has meant that I am shopping in bulk more, shopping to last at least 2-3 weeks, then not going to the supermarket again until I have to. This has made me plan ahead more and schedule meals, making ingredients work harder and longer, and making sure I am eating well to feel well. Eating ready meals and convenience foods was never going to work long term, and would have had a negative impact on my physical and mental well being.

With more time available, cooking has become a hobby, rather than a necessity. I am experimenting with ingredients and ever the maverick, I’m being creatively rebellious with recipes! More free time has meant cooking at my leisure, other than at meal times, then freezing and batching meals for the next few weeks.

But this new ‘Nigella-me’ isn’t just thanks to Covid. In February this year I finally decided to give up meat for good. I had been toying with the idea for a long time, having never really been a huge meat eater, (but sometimes enjoying the odd bacon sandwich!) so it forever seemed a possibility. After researching the environmental impact of meat production, paired my huge love of animals, I decided to finally commit. I am now pescatarian.

I thought you may find it useful or inspiring to read a few of my most favourite recipes, so I will be logging these on the blog in the next coming months. Please do try some, and let me know your thoughts, and if you have any vegetarian or pescatarian favourites you would like to share, I would love to hear from you.

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Aubergine and Red Lentil Bake

Aubergine and Red Lentil Bake served with rocket salad

Honestly, smells and tastes unbelievable! This recipe was creatively adapted from a BBC Good Food Moussaka recipe, but as always I go off-piste and didn’t have all the ingredients so here’s my version below, you will have to use some ‘executive judgement’ for your own measurements and amounts.

Serves 4

• 2 large mugs of red lentils

• 1 large aubergine

• dash of virgin olive oil

• large dash of tomato puree

• salt and pepper

• 3 cloves of garlic

• 1 tin of chopped tomatoes

• 1 1/2 red onion

• 1 large mug of frozen peppers

• dash of chilli powder

• dash of cinnamon

• 4 new potatoes

• 1/2 small block of cheddar

1. Add lentils to a pan of water and boil till absorbed and thick, then rinse and drain.

2. Chop the aubergine into rounds and toss with oil, add salt and pepper then pop under grill until browned on both sides.

3. Cook the onion and peppers in a large frying pan or wok for 3 minutes until browned, add the garlic and tomato puree and mix.

4. Add the chopped tomatoes and cinnamon to the onion and pepper, simmer for 5 mins.

5. Chop the potatoes into rounds and do the same under the grill, add a splash of oil and salt and pepper, part cook them.

6. Add the lentils to the tomatoes, onion and pepper, mx together and leave on low heat while the potatoes cook.

7. Use a oven proof dish to layer up the lentil mix and aubergine slices, and then top with the potato slices

8. Spinkle grated cheddar on top and cook on gas 4 for 30 mins, until cheese is nicely melted and brown.

9. Serve with a healthy rocket salad.