Katherine Carey did seven ski seasons in the Alps cooking for chaletgoers as well as training and working in massage. Now, happily planted back in Harrogate, Katherine has taken experience and qualifications, including at Neal’s Yard, in everything from Chinese medical massage and work as a healing practitioner to turn her first business, Retreat, into Retreat Remedies where she is now inspired by ancient remedies to create apple cider vinegars, teas and nourishing food blends. Katherine also runs supper clubs as well as restorative retreats in Yorkshire and abroad and has developed her own loose leaf tea flask. Here, she shares her food loves.
What would be one simple, healthy habit to introduce for 2025?
A herbal tea meditation, with a flask of herbal tea and some fresh air. And if you have time, listen to one of my recorded herbal tea meditations. A delicious herbal tea is like getting into good coffee. With loose leaf tea, the herbs are bigger than in tea bags, so you are getting the nutrition and healing properties from six or seven blends, with more essential oils and more flavour. It’s a calm, peaceful and mindful way to start your day. Doing it with a meditation really enhances the habit.
What is your favourite ingredient?
Ginger. I use it in so much of my cooking, and I feel like at this time of year, it’s one of the most warming spices, it’s extremely antiviral and hugely anti-inflammatory for the respiratory system. It’s an easy one for people to cook with, too.
What is the flavour of the moment in your kitchen?
My Golden Goodness and Firefighter ingredients. When I drain off my apple cider vinegars, I’m left with all of the good stuff, that’s all organic and been soaked in the vinegar. I jar it up and sell it. You can put a tablespoon into your food, for example, in a French opinion soup. It has horseradish and ginger and onion and it also adds in the apple cider vinegar and the gut goodness.
What is your most vivid childhood food memory?
My parents had a wholesale bakery, Howard’s. My dad, Nick Carey, bought it in Harrogate when I was 11 or 12. He had 24 staff, three vans that went to Harrogate, Leeds, York, every day. And I can’t tell you how many times I got a phone call at half four in the morning saying, ‘I’m sorry can you come in?’ But the smell when you hit the drive, of the cheese and onion breads, and all the fresh bread that was just out of the oven – heaven. To be getting up at that time and it’s still dark, but you walk into the smell of that. Unforgettable.
What is your most memorable meal?
My boyfriend Rob and I, absolutely love Fountains Abbey. We go every Monday, on our day off, for a walk. We were at Fountains at Floodlight. We arrived and the sunset was unbelievable. We were the first people in the abbey, with the sun streaming through the windows. It was a magical evening. One of the food stands sold cheese toasties. I think it was the best I’ve ever had. It was absolutely delicious, sat overlooking the abbey, on this magical night.
Who would be at your fantasy dinner party – and what would you eat and drink?
If I could have anything, I would have, my granddad that’s passed away, and my Nana’s, who is still here but has lost two sons, and my other grandparents, I’d have all come back to life. I would cook supper club style in my future dream barn space – I’m ready to burst out of the house, and it’s time to find a lovely little barn somewhere for Retreat Remedies. But then pudding would definitely be pavlova. My mum, Val, makes the best ones and it’s the one recipe I’ve made sure to get absolutely right.
Who are your Yorkshire food and drink heroes?
Kimberley Brereton from Pickled Radish. She has a unit at Old Sleningford Farm. She understands what hard work is, doing retreat food. But equally, like me, she loves feeding people and also feeding peoples’ knowledge of what’s good for them. I love Bax Botanics, too. The owners, Chris and Rose, are people I went on a foraging course with. I have loved watching their journey.
What’s next?
I’m going to focus on trying to find a bigger, perfect, gorgeous little barn. I’ve got supper clubs and retreats in Ibiza during the year, too.
The perfect January pep-up dish?
Sweetcorn and cauliflower chowder – this is a dish full of colour, flavour and vibrancy and it’s easy to make. I add in my Golden Goodness for its antiviral properties and liver and gut healing. What I love is that you chop the broccoli stalks, fry them with peanuts and some chilli and some leek or a spring onion, and it’s so nutritious and so filling.
retreatremedies.co.uk
