Garlic & Sapphire is written by a team of bloggers who are passionate about gardening, cooking, flowers and floristry.
For more information about each author, please see below…
Emma is the writer of Silver Pebble, and an incredible jewellery designer with a love for simple natural gardening.
“Being surrounded by flowers and bees in my grandfather’s and later in my mother’s garden inspired me to make a garden of my own. I give every seedling its chance and edit later, so many of my plants and flowers are self-seeded. I love the unpredictability and unexpected combinations this brings. When cow parsley arrived in my garden, of its own accord, I was absolutely thrilled. The plant combinations in my local meadows, verges and woodlands constantly influence both my garden and my jewellery designs.”
Kendra writes a blog called News from Nowhere and and also contributes to the Observer Organic Allotment Blog and Gardenista. Before moving to the middle of England she had been a writer and designer in London on magazines like Vogue and Observer Food Monthly.
“Last year I trained at Cottesbrooke Hall as a gardener but asked so many questions and took so many pictures that I may not have got much gardening done. I was a journalist with a spade. So I started my blog, and continue to be a nosy person with a camera and notebook.”
Jono blogs about growing vegetables at his cheery allotment blog, Real Men Sow. He particularly enjoys sharing money saving tips and his latest challenge is to match his record yearly allotment saving of £531 in his new garden veg patch.
“In 2007, I took on a redundant allotment plot with my gardening-mad mum. As all good mums do, she went along with it, but I don’t think she held out much hope. However, six years on, and mum now lets me work without watching over my shoulder, so I must be doing something right.
I’ve found that there’s something joyful about allotments, growing your own food, and living within the seasons. I do my best to try and capture that feeling on my blog.”
Rona is the writer of the blog Flowerona, and is passionate about all things floral.
“After fifteen years in the corporate world, my love of flowers was reawakened when I signed up for a floristry evening class in 2004. I enjoyed it so much that I went part-time at my job in order to study for a formal floristry qualification.
I worked in florist shops in Surrey and London before setting up my flower-inspired blog at the end of 2010. And I now blog full-time, as well as writing for magazines.”
Karen is the writer of Lavender & Lovage, and runs a cookery school in the South of France.
“My interest in food started from a very early age; I was greatly influenced by my grandmother and mother. I clearly remember tables groaning under the weight of home-baked pies, cakes, scones, tarts, preserves, jams, pickles and bread. Nobody ever left the table empty. Cooking was seasonal and I remember looking forward to the new season’s produce with anticipation and pleasure – the seasons marked the year and its feasts and celebrations.
I have always been passionate about seasonal food and local produce and I feel sad that so many of our traditional British feasts and festivals are being marginalised and forgotten, something that I am attempting to highlight and remedy with my writing, photography, recipes and food articles.”
Alissa works at the Sarah Raven offices in Marlborough – she adores cooking delicious homegrown veg, picking local wildflowers for cute table displays and wild foraging.
“I’ve always appreciated the beauty of nature – and since this year have been keenly aware of all the beautiful wildflowers dotted around the countryside. Whenever I go on holiday during the Spring, I notice all the native plants that grow amongst the hedgerows and in the fields – Gozo in 2012 was a particular highlight, as there is a riot of colour everywhere, and the whole island is jam-packed full of wildflowers.”
Belinda is a contemporary jewellery maker and summer time flower grower/seller who blogs about her adventures with flowers and precious metals at Wild Acre Flowers.
“When I am not at my jewellery bench I love to spend as much time as possible in the garden I have created from a small field behind the converted barn I live in with my family. My passion for flowers means that my garden has become a pollinator friendly riot of summer colour with a cutting patch in pride of place.
The joy of filling the house with blooms from April to October as well as selling posies and bouquets to local customers has exceeded all expectations. I firmly believe that not much beats a bunch of your own sweet peas on the kitchen table!”
Jude is a busy mother and housewife, who between the school run and walking the dog spends a great deal of time in the kitchen, blogging about it at A Trifle Rushed.
“I love cooking with seasonal food, trying to source both local and Fairtrade produce whenever possible. I particularly enjoy the challenge of cooking seafood in Brittany and am delighted when my store cupboard is full of homemade preserves, cordials and liqueurs. I keep notes about my cooking on my blog A Trifle Rushed.”
Steph is one of our lovely customer service staff at Sarah Raven. She is our resident plant expert and has a delightful passion for gardening.
“I’ve always loved being outdoors, and gardening has been an ever increasing passion of mine as the years go by. I was lucky enough to train as part of the WRAGS scheme run by the Womans Farms and Gardens association when my youngest son started school many years ago,and have worked as a gardener and lectured at an Adult Education college.”
“Nowdays frozen fingers and 3 hungry sons mean full time work indoors, but luckily in the Sarah Raven office so I’m still able to use my gardening knowledge and interest.”
Nicole is a wholefood recipe developer and blogger at Nicole Bremner with a city sized veg plot and garden. Born in Australia Nicole moved to London in her twenties then on to New York. The arrival of the first of three children saw her return to London and leave the world of banking for a more flexible career. When not in the garden or kitchen Nicole assists businesswomen create their own bijou brand.
“I was fortunate to grow up on a farm in rural Australia. My earliest memories are of being out in the garden or in the kitchen with my mother or grandmother. Raised vegetarian (my grandparents and parents are vegies) I started eating meat in my twenties but then became vegan in 2012. Now I focus on creating wholesome plant based recipes using seasonal produce. When we bought our first house in 2010 I was bit by the gardening bug. After attending many courses with Sarah Raven at Perch Hill my garden is looking amazing.”
If you would like to write for our blog, please get in contact via a Facebook message or Twitter DM.
LOVELY to meet the team and looking forward to working with you all, knee deep in herbs, flowers, and veggies no doubt, with a shake of flour and sugar thrown in for good measure……..Karen
Garlic and Sapphire….that takes me back, Baker and Duguid and the school run.
Glad to see you’ve all grown up too.
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Lovely to read the blog and meet the team behind the lovely catalogues and website! Sara
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