Having spent almost two decades with my PR hat on sharing other people’s stories, it only seemed right to share what inspired the name Woodside Apothecary!
My new venture couldn’t really be called anything else after being inspired from a very early age by my Nana Ivy who lived at Woodside Cottage. I spent a lot of my childhood at her house, it’s located close to the allotment that has been in my family for almost 100 years and where I now grow herbs. Nana Ivy was an amazing woman, she kept bees, pigs, chickens and ducks, she grew all her own veg and fruit, she made butter, cheese – you name it she made it!
The pantry at Woodside Cottage was down a set of stone steps and was freezing cold, but it was full of magical jewel coloured jars of preserves and pickles, all different colours and they all looked so tasty. Nana Ivy was also well known for brewing up mystery herbal teas for family members with minor ailments, headaches and upset tums.
As for Apothecary, when I was a lot younger I was always making jars of rose petal potions in my ‘Apoffery’, my version of an Apothecary! I remember one family holiday when I brought back a precious bucket full of seawater and seaweed precariously cradled on the back seat of my Dad’s car, all the way from Wales to Cheshire. I’d read about seaweed and living in landlocked Cheshire wanted to bring some home!
Fast forward to more recently, I took a short break from training during the first lockdown and started creating bespoke tea blends and lots of friends would message me at ‘The Apothecary’.
So that’s the story behind Woodside Apothecary, it seems fitting that the woman who inspired me so much is also present in my daily work.
